GMO Cloud

Cloud Hubbing For Businesses

A few months ago, Forbes.com released an article entitled, “Why You Need a Cloud Hubbing Strategy”; this article explained that companies need to understand applications in a deeper way to make full use of the cloud.

The same magazine recently released an article on how cloud hubbing can change a business.

In an interview with Equinix General Manager of content and cloud Chris Sharp, he identifed the top five patterns that are creating the most value for customers, which will also serve as an indicator whether or not they should engage in cloud hubbing:

• Balancing on-premise and cloud deployments
• Creating own content delivery architecture
• Application acceleration

Cloud hubbing is an effect of the desire to optimize various cloud-based services – and while the cloud is generally perceived as the technology that may resolve major issues in software, networks and infrastructure costs, a medium is still needed to facilitate the delivery of data and services in a speedy and reliable manner.

Find out the rest of the patterns in Forbes and see how cloud hubbing can help your business optimize infrastructure and save costs.

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Friday Cloud News Roundup

Cloud Computing Policies

With the continuous progress of cloud computing such as decreasing costs and evolving capabilities, small businesses are already learning to benefit from it.

There are still, however, concerns on privacy and data protection. An infographic in Read Write Web shows the development of cloud computing policies worldwide, and how cloud adoption is affected in each country.

Some countries doing well with cloud policies include:

• United States
• United Kingdom
• Japan

… and some of the top technology priorities include:

• Cloud computing
• Virtualization
• Mobile technologies

Visit Read Write Web to view other global priorities and other inferences on how cloud computing is affected in a country, which were derived from several sources.

Sony’s Playstation Goes to the Cloud

Playstation Plus members can now look forward to an addition to their Playstation 3: Save to cloud.

This new feature will offer gamers:

• Up to 150 MB of data
• 1,000 save files per account
• Ability to backup “copy
  prohibited data”

Which will all be included in the version 3.6 update. By syncing data to the cloud, PS3 users can protect their data from critical system failures and access data for
any PS3 device via the Playstation Network.

Visit Time Techland to view the full article.

A New Level of Video Management

After over a year of development, online video platform, MediaSilo has released MediaSilo 3.0, a cloud-based video management platform that introduces hundreds of new
features and a new user interface aimed at accelerating production workflows. This new version will become available during the NAB 2012.

Some significant improvements include:

• Broader file format compatibility
• Quicker and easier file upload
• New API for developers
• New admin panel for accounts

With this new version of the platform, MediaSilo will become the central hub for all things media within the industry.

Visit Marketwatch to read the full article.

Cloud-Influenced Mergers in 2012

An article in ZDNet shares the strong outlook for technology mergers and acquisitions for 2012.

Visit ZDNet to view full trends on deals and partnership, and find out why transformation deals are expected to become the norm.

Verification IP Webinar

On April 10, 2012 at 6:00 PM GMT, Cadence Design Systems, Inc.’s Tom Hackett, Sr will be conducting a webinar about emerging standards and technologies and how
verification IP plays a critical role in the cloud technology revolution.

The webinar will feature IP components that are driving server, storage and networking companies to adopt emerging standards helping deliver the cloud computing structure.

Find out the full details and the registration process at Embedded.

Federal Cloud Computing Dates

SIIA.net has published the key dates for federal cloud computing, that provides opportunities and deadlines to cloud providers and technology companies.

Some of the dates include:

• FedRAMP deadline
• NIST Cloud Computing Workshop
• Cloud First Deliverables

The site also includes updates to the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) that is comprised of innovative software and IT services firms who are closely watching the
development of Federal investment in cloud technologies.

The First Cloud Technology School District

The Brick School District is the first in the tri-state area to have move their e-mail and file storage system to web servers instead of internal systems.

According to Len Niebo, the district’s technology director, the move will save on thousands of dollars per year in licensing fees and maintenance costs.

The Microsoft-sponsored initiative is initially available to teachers and staff but is expected to eventually reach students by next year as they will be issued their own Skydrive, which will allow them to store, access and edit documents anywhere.

Visit Brickpatch to view the full article.

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What Community Clouds Mean for Vertical Industries

Community clouds are the next stage of cloud evolution. These are basically a subset of public clouds that are tailored to a specific vertical industry – this is according to an article in PC Advisor.

The concept of community clouds is not new, it was the subject of a blog in 2010 by Gordon Haff, Red Hat’s cloud evangelist. Experts believe that the market is still in its early days but interest is definitely foreseen.

The advantage of community clouds over public clouds is that its functionality characteristics have been tailored for whatever industry the community cloud serves.

Although the technology is not yet widespread in the market, there are already some vendors who have started offering community clouds:

• International Game Technology – IGT Cloud, Gaming
• Optum – Optum Health Cloud, Healthcare
• CFN Services – Global Financial Services Cloud, Financial

The emergence of community clouds will also provide the opportunity for vendors to distinguish themselves in a growingly crowded marketplace. Read the full article in PC Advisor and see the competitive advantages as well as the challenges of community clouds.

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The Growing Popularity of Identity as a Service

Last year, Gartner estimated global SaaS revenue at $12Billion, a 21% increase from 2010. Predictions were made that by 2015, SaaS will account for 15% of enterprise application purchases. With this expected growth, one major anticipated problem is the management of user identities for
applications, this was when Identity as a Service (IDaaS) was developed.

An article in Windowsitpro discusses how IDaaS is seen as a viable alternative to on-premise solutions and how it can solve SaaS security issues.

Some IDaaS benefits given were:

• Immediate SSO access to thousands of SaaS applications
• Provision of strong authorization
• High availability architecture

The article further discussed the increasing awareness of these benefits provided by IDaaS and how the adoption of this type of service is not only being used by small companies but large enterprises as well.

Visit Windowsitpro to read the article and see the current market leaders for this solutions. Also, find out how IDaaS can resolve problems that have arisen with the sudden popularity of cloud computing.

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How CIO-CFO Collaboration Can Help Businesses Enhance Cloud Adoption

C-level officers need to collaborate to achieve the common goal of optimizing the business to serve clients. The cloud shift of businesses is not only focused on how IT operates but it also involves the financial underpinnings needed for success – this is according to an article in Forbes.

More particularly, the CIO and CFO of a business need to create a roadmap that helps navigate the financial and technological decisions in technology shifts; especially in adopting the cloud, which is not an overnight journey.

The article also cited the top 5 reasons why CIO’s and CFO’s should join forces to drive business success to the cloud:

• CIO’s can help CFO’s understand the business case for the cloud
• CIO’s and CFO’s must collaborate on a deployment plan
• CFO’s must have CIO insight to fully grasp financial implications
• Managing cloud technology implementation
• CIO and CFO need to unite to overcome “shadow IT”

Further explanations were given to strengthen these points, most of which were centered on how the two major personalities need to understand and acknowledge each other’s roles to move the business forward. Visit Forbes to read the full article on the reasons why the CIO and CFO of a business should band together to successfully implement cloud technology.

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