Categories

Tags

12.16.2011

UpFront with Piston Cloud CEO
Joshua McKinty has been on the forefront of cloud technology for several years now, including his involvement with the creation of OpenStack. Now he has a new venture, Piston Cloud, and he spent a bit of time recently with Vator News to talk about the direction that he sees for both cloud technology and his new Piston Cloud, including where it can be leading that move.

Cloud Computing Adaption Increasing
With the recession pushing business to look for cost cutting, more businesses then ever have been looking at cloud computing as a solution. According to the latest reports from companiesandmarkets.com, the trend towards cloud computing will only grow in the coming year as the need for IT support of mobile services makes cloud technology the perfect solution.

PersonalWeb Sues for Patent Infringement
The owner of a company that owns several patents relating to storage and cloud computing have initiated a lawsuit against nine of the leading data storage businesses, alleging infringement of their patents. PersonalWeb named eight patents that were violated by all of the nine companies and is looking for unspecified damages, costs, and royalties related to the patents. Among the companies named were Amazon, NEC and YouTube.

71% of Healthcare Providers Considering Cloud Adaption
In a recent report by healthcare research firm KLAS, healthcare providers are beginning to turn to the cloud in large numbers, even if that move is not as likely to be to public clouds such as Amazon. Although patient data security and data control were still cited as major concerns, many healthcare providers are looking at private clouds as the way to secure their records above the levels achieved at their own onsite data centers.

Federal Government Adopts Cloud Security Rules
The Federal Government just announced the development of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). This program will offer to any business considering doing cloud business with government agencies a standard approach and set of guidelines for cloud security assessments. This will aid the private sector to market cloud products to these agencies as the government begins its migration to the cloud.

Be Part of Our Cloud Conversation

Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

12.15.2011

While we often focus on the ways that business, especially SMBs can benefit from a move to cloud server based operations, educational centers are poised to make a move to the cloud as well. Cloud technology blog CloudTweaks takes a look at how the world of education, at all levels, can benefit from the latest cloud servers technology.

In this concise look at how cloud servers can solve many of today’s problems in the classroom the author identifies various areas where the application of cloud servers to the current technology can make classrooms more efficient learning environments. Here are just a couple examples of how the author sees the education system moving to the clouds:

1. Staff – Using a cloud server based distributed management system to balance staff workloads across entire school systems.
2. Teachers – Setting up virtual classrooms to handle smaller class loads or expand when teachers are at a premium.
3. Students – Use cloud based learning for homework that would allow students to collaborate with a large range of fellow learners.
4. Applications – In colleges and universities, allow students to have access to complex technical applications previously only available to high end Universities through a shared system of cloud servers.

For a look at how both public school systems and higher education centers can use cloud servers and cloud technology to give greater access to a larger range of students, read the full story at CloudTweaks.

Be Part of Our Cloud Conversation

Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

12.14.2011

Deutsche Bank recently was recognized for its use of cloud server based Collaboration and Identity Management software to create virtualized environments for developers and individuals. The German bank identified its use of cloud server based technology to develop and deploy identity management tools. These tools were vital to the development of cloud server technologies that safeguard the banking companies business while allowing developers to collaborate in virtual environments.

The judges noted in awarding the recognition that the concepts that Deutsche Bank used could be adapted by others in both the banking industry and other security-conscious businesses. The bank showed in its white paper on the development and deployment of the cloud server based technologies how it fulfilled three objectives:

1. The end user costs needed to be low.
2. The cost to support the service needed to be kept to a minimum.
3. Instead of automated backup the system needed to be able to protect and manage applications by delivering flexible code and core data repositories.

For a full look at the requirements of the cloud server technology award and a link to the white paper by Deutsche Bank that shows the development of the low cost developer service, be sure to follow our link here.

Be Part of Our Cloud Conversation

Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

12.13.2011

The use of cloud technology for startups may be the very thing that fuels the upcoming boom in business development. This is the viewpoint of Forbes latest look at technology and business by guest writer Joe McKendrick. In this forward-looking article, he shows by examples how various startups have used cloud technology as a key component of their business to cut down startup costs and turn a profit more quickly.

It doesn’t matter whether it is college kids straight out of school, long time business professionals looking for a new start or corporate professionals looking at becoming entrepreneurs. The move to cloud technology has made new businesses in everything from travel services to scientific ventures and entertainment businesses a more sustainable possibility with very little upfront costs compared to traditional startups.

The article also looks at recent surveys that show over 50% of new businesses are using cloud technology in everything from finances to sales to storage and backup. The critical first three years are where the biggest savings occur and McKendrick has the numbers to back this up. To read his interview with Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn and an in-depth look at one very successful startups venture, Cycle Computing, continue reading at Forbes.com.

Be Part of Our Cloud Conversation

Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.