Over the last fifteen or so years, we have seen computing make the transition from the fixed and immovable desktops and servers, through to chunky underpowered laptops, through to less chunky but more powerful laptops using Wi-Fi connectivity, through to smartphones, 3G, tablets.

We are now nearing a state of complete computing mobility. More recently, we have seen cloud computing grow exponentially with cloud hosting and remote data storage services such as Dropbox taking centre stage.

It is predicted that in 2013, there will be significant merging between the cloud and mobile computing.

The cloud and mobility have already merged in certain markets however, but under a different guise. Where ‘mobility’ has meant the access and input of data in any place and at any time, whether in business or public, it follows that there should be a convergence of such mobility with the extensive array of cloud services.

There …

By Laurent Lachal, Senior Analyst, Ovum Software

At the end of November 2012, Amazon Web Services (AWS) held its first partner and customer conference in Las Vegas. Dubbed AWS “re: Invent”, the event was a success. It enabled AWS to assert itself as a large and influential player in the IT marketplace.

However, as well as AWS’s strengths, it also highlighted some of its traditional weaknesses. These include poor communications and an inability to put forward messages adapted to the needs of enterprise executives.

A growing footprint but needs more transparency

AWS shares as little information about itself as it can get away with. As the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) market matures, it becomes increasingly awkward for the organisation to be so closely guarded.

Nevertheless, the conference itself, in its size, energy, and quality of networking opportunities, was a good reminder of the growing influence that AWS yields in the IT …

Now that SharePoint Server 2013 has been released, I frequently get asked about ways in which a SharePoint 2013 lab environment can be easily built for studying, testing and/or performing a proof-of-concept. You could certainly build this lab environment on your own hardware, but due to the level of SharePoint 2013 hardware requirements, a lot of us may not have sufficient spare hardware to implement an on-premise lab environment.
This makes a great scenario for leveraging our Windows Azure FREE 90-day Trial Offer to build a free lab environment for SharePoint 2013 in the cloud. Using the process outlined in this article, you’ll be able to build a basic functional farm environment for SharePoint 2013 that will be accessible for approximately 105 hours of compute usage each month at no cost to you under the 90-day Trial Offer.

This makes a great scenario for leveraging our Windows Azure FREE 90-day Trial Offer to build a free lab environment for SharePoint 2013 in the cloud. Using the process outlined in this article, you’ll be able to build a basic functional farm environment for SharePoint 2013 that will be accessible for approximately 105 hours of compute usage each month at no cost to you under the 90-day Trial Offer.

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Every year has threatened to be “the year of the Cloud” but my main prediction for 2013 IT industry developments will be that yes, this is the year that it cements its role as the most major of technology disruptions.
It’s hard for Cloud to be defined in such a delineated manner, as it has been underway as a technology trend for many years, there is a wide spectrum of categories of what’s involved which are all continually evolving and also customer adoption has also been underway for many to various extents.
So it’s already been the Cloud for quite some time and so a bit late to make it the Year Of.

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Businesses live and die by their ability to sell. Despite common belief, the key to successful selling in the cloud doesn’t rely on the technology infrastructure behind the scenes — the real key is in billing.
In essence, a cloud solution is an agreement between the vendor and the user. The ability to monetize that agreement is the heart of how to sell in the cloud. The more customers using your solution, the more revenue you create. To ensure a steady and predictable revenue stream the back end systems need to be able to support it.
The temptation with any sales process is to sell the sizzle; however, in a cloud environment, function is what’s important. Simplicity is key – from account creation to managing payment processes, billing, and user management, making these processes as simple as possible will make signing up new customers much easier.

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Ultimately cloud computing will be driven by customer needs for control and enabled by a new generation of hybrid cloud solutions.
Today public and private cloud operating models offer islands of IT operating efficiency that can be highly desirable for applications and services specifically designed for the cloud or which are already virtualized. Yet for the vast majority of multi-tier applications the cloud is still a pipe dream of promises and expectations. The problem isn’t with the cloud service providers per se, but rather with the vast gulf of manual processes required to migrate and operate apps (and their services) into and between data centers, colocation facilities and various public clouds.

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While most pundits have fallen in love with public cloud, behind the scenes a variety of technologies and vendors are evolving the will deliver the ultimate clouds, hybrid clouds.
Amazon and Google have done a remarkable job promoting public cloud, as VMware, Cisco and OpenStack have done similarly with private cloud. Yet late last year at the December Gartner Data Center Conference 2012 the dominant theme was neither public cloud nor private cloud, but rather hybrid cloud. The hybrid cloud is form of cloud computing whereby applications and services can run across multiple clouds, colocation and data centers seamlessly, as a single hybrid cloud.
Before you dismiss hybrid cloud as another marketing twist on cloudwashing, consider its roots and evolution from the physical data center into an elastic, software-defined data center (as VMware calls it). We started talking about a new, elastic architecture back in 2010 from the context of the necessary evolution of networks to support elastic and dynamic virtual infrastructures, including clouds.

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“Our company has been growing in the commercial industry. People want to do the right thing and are making their buildings green and it’s actually a great option for them financially,” explained Ken Ebbert, Director of Channel Sales at Trinity Solar, in this SYS-CON.tv interview with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan at the 11th International Cloud Expo, held November 5-8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Cloud Expo 2013 New York, June 10–13, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.

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