Latest News from Cloud Computing Journal

Cloud Data Analytics, Mobile Support, and Managed Services Procurement

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:46:34 EDT

Ariba Vice President Chris Haydon explains the company's latest news and offers insights into how Ariba will be broadening its services procurement management value, mobile push, and AribaPay rollout. We have some really exciting innovation coming in the near-term to Ariba in a couple of areas. First, let's talk about Network RFQ or the Spot Buy. We think this is part of the undiscovered country, where, according to The Hackett Group, 40-plus percent of spend is not sourced. By linking this non-sourced spend to the Ariba Network, we think we're going to be able to address a large pain-point for our buyers and our sellers. Network RFQ or Spot Buy is a near-term solution that we announced at LIVE, and we're bringing that forward over the next six months.

LogMeIn Previews AppGuru

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:20:57 EDT

LogMeIn is announcing a solution for the “Bring Your Own Apps” trend. Importantly, rather than making IT professionals the bad guys trying to stop the trend, the new AppGuru puts IT pros back into the role of strategic advisor in a cloud-centric world. As business applications move to the cloud and new, employee-introduced cloud apps take hold in the workplace, the nature of and need for identity management is changing. A December 2012 study conducted by Edge Strategies on the bring-your-own-app (BYOA) trend found nearly 70% of companies reported active use of employee-introduced cloud apps at work. According to the findings, only 22 percent of IT pros indicate they are fully prepared to handle BYOA and 43 percent are concerned with the lack of control over these apps. In addition, SaaS enterprise apps (e.g., Salesforce.com), are often controlled by line-of-business owners, thus putting traditional IT tasks such as provisioning and policy control in the hands of business users outside the IT department.

Cloud-Friendly BPM: The Power of Hypermedia-Oriented Architecture

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:00:00 EDT

We must bring together the worlds of SOA, BPM, Cloud, REST, and HOA. The secret to getting all these architectural trends to work well together centers on how we deal with state information. We must first separate application state from resource state, and then subsequently take the conceptual leap to understanding that the best way to implement our business processes is by combining HOA processes with Composite RESTful Services. Once we make this leap, however, the pieces of this complicated puzzle finally fall into place. What we need is a better way of dealing with state information that both allows our BPM engines to be Cloud friendly, and also frees us from the limitations of our ESBs. Or perhaps we must reinvent our ESBs to work in the Cloud. However you slice the problem, Hypermedia-Oriented Architecture (HOA) has the answer.

Cloud vs. Control

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:37:00 EDT

If the leadership in your organization is mature and has a good track record – rest assured that a risk-mitigated decision to dabble in the public cloud is a vote of confidence in your direction. It's little more than innate human nature to strive to control the environment around us. From macro-level examples, including the very democratic foundation of our governments, to things we do every day; our desire to control is evident in all aspects of our lives. Have you ever lined up in the automated check-out line at the grocery store even though a "manned" (gasp!) cashier was available? You're not alone.

Cloud Expo New York: API Security, Does My Business Need an OAuth Server?

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:14:00 EDT

Many have heard of OAuth but are unsure of how it might apply to their business. In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Alistair Farquharson, CTO of SOA Software, will describe how OAuth can be used to facilitate certain business models and simplify the sharing of private data. Alistair Farquharson is a visionary industry veteran focused on using disruptive technologies to drive business growth and improve efficiency and agility within organizations. As the CTO of SOA Software Alistair is helping to shape and mature the enterprise API and SOA industry. Alistair is responsible for product strategy and development for this leading Enterprise API and SOA Governance company. He spends a great deal of time and energy shaping customer and industry direction with regular conference keynote appearances, discussions with customers, and even the occasional foray into writing code. Alistair has been at the forefront of many technology waves from enterprise web architecture, through web services and SOA, and now into APIs. His expertise spans a wide range of technologies and businesses, and he brings a unique global focus to everything he does.

Retailers Turn Cloud Computing into Sales

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:25:00 EDT

It turns out cloud computing could be the most useful sales associate on the floor, and you won't have to worry about it stealing sales leads, ala “Glengarry Glen Ross.” With the help of cloud computing, some brick-and-mortar stores are combating showrooming, a trend where consumers look at items in a store before buying them online, usually at lower prices, according to an article on Wired.com. Clouds offer retailers a way to explore the potential of Big Data analytics to understand their customers better. In order to compete with e-tailers, retailers are tapping social networks to learn what customers are saying about them and about their competitors. Weather data is being used to influence product-purchasing decisions, and merchandise promotions are organized around social events. In many cases, brick-and-mortar retailers are even finding new data sources. Some companies are tracking the movement of customers within stores and analyzing how many stop at displays to improve the effectiveness of merchandising. Others are considering installing license-plate cameras in parking lots to find out which customer is about to walk into the store.

Juniper & Seagate Invest in Cloudscaling

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:00:00 EDT

Cloudscaling, the four-year old start-up that insists it’s got the most advanced OpenStack infrastructure system, has picked up a $10 million B round from Trinity Ventures and two new investors, new strategic partners Juniper Networks and Seagate. It reportedly got a $4 million A round from Trinity in 2011. In April Cloudscaling wheeled out its turnkey Open Cloud System (OCS) 2.5, which it integrated with Juniper’s virtual network control (VNC) technology, JunosV Contrail, signaling their partnership. The two now plan other joint networking solutions that would support a new generation of cloud-aware enterprise workloads. The Register thinks Juniper may wind up buying the company. Cloudscaling also joined the Seagate Cloud Builder Alliance Partner program in April and, as part of the program, it and Seagate are focused on developing optimized storage solutions for OpenStack.

Cloud Expo New York | Enterprise Cloud: Five Dirty Little Secrets

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:38:00 EDT

You're getting pitched every day from your legacy enterprise software and hardware vendors about "cloud." They're doing an amazing job of convincing your CIO and CTO about what cloud is and how you should use it. The reality is they're defending their shrinking market share and keeping you on the legacy treadmill for as long as they can by selling you solutions that aren't "cloud." In her session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Niki Acosta, Cloud Evangelista for Rackspace, will talk through the five dirty little secrets your legacy IT vendors won't tell you about cloud. Attendees will leave with an understanding of how you should really be thinking about building enterprise apps for the cloud while embracing the fundamental shift away from legacy IT.

Joyent Moves To Take On Amazon

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:00:00 EDT

Joyent, one of the original infrastructure clouds that set up about the same time as Amazon Web Services but without Amazon’s giant fallback cushion, restructured its cloud line Thursday, adding a bunch of new instances that pretty much map to Amazon’s. It also introduced reserved pricing plans.

Cloud Success Tips from the Future

Thu, 23 May 2013 06:15:00 EDT

Imagine if you could take a time machine five years into the future, so that you would know which of today’s new technologies panned out and which did not. Most companies have only started using cloud in the past two years. But there are some companies that have been using cloud for five years or more. They are “five years into the future” -- they’ve learned things that companies that just...

Optimize Your Virtual Environment to Obtain Maximum Business Value

Thu, 23 May 2013 06:15:00 EDT

Everyone is virtualizing, but are they realizing any of the promised savings? This overview of IBM's new virtualization optimization solutions will show you how integrated Cloud Solutions like SmartCloud Provisioning and SmartCloud Monitoring can deliver the savings virtualization promises. Organizations are using intelligent management and analytics to provide the insight needed to optimize their virtualized infrastructure and dramatically improve availability, reduce data storage footprints and streamline patch management. In his session at 12th Cloud Expo | Cloud Expo New York [June 10-13], IBM's Dan Carr will review lessons learned from real-world experience.

Patterns to Bring Enterprise and Social Identity to the Cloud

Thu, 23 May 2013 06:00:00 EDT

One of the most compelling promises of the cloud is that you can pull out a credit card and be working in minutes. No purchase orders to fill out, no equipment to wait for on the loading dock. Just instant access to the resources you need, when you need them. But accessibility comes at a price, and an unintentional consequence may be that you create yet another orphaned identity silo. Enterprise IT has spent years consolidating its mishmash of directories, only to discover that cloud now threatens to turn back their hard-won victories.

Cloud Expo New York: Ten Myths of Cloud Computing

Thu, 23 May 2013 04:00:00 EDT

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.

OpenStack New York Meetup Group Syncs Up with Cloud Expo New York

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:45:00 EDT

"Since Cloud Expo is running the week of June 10, we thought it'd be a great idea to schedule our Meetup this week. That way, if you have colleagues, friends, or family in town that week for the Expo, you can invite them to join you!" With those words, the OpenStack New York Meetup Group's organizer's launched a landing page this week where anyone interested can register for the June 12 evening event.

Is Free Encryption Worth It?

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:20:29 EDT

“The last time I checked, people do not change their social security numbers very often...” While in constant debate over data encryption and ease of access, I encountered a train of thought that made my jaw drop. A tradeshow attendee suggested encrypting everything, but just use a weak algorithm; so as not to make it impossible to decode if needed in the future. Before smirking and quoting statistics as truth, I stopped to ponder: was there any merit to the statement, what was the sensitivity level of the data, where was it being stored, who had access to it, what was the definition of a weak algorithm, was this archival data or was it accessed and changed often? Through conversation, the premise was potentially plausible (with some big question marks), but the logic was still thoroughly flawed. Yes, the data was constantly changing and only updated records were being sent to branch offices via a public cloud file sharing service, but the data did contain personally identifiable information. The last time I checked, people do not change their social security numbers very often and data captured by an intruder will stay in its captured state.

BUMI to Exhibit at Cloud Expo New York

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:59:00 EDT

SYS-CON Events announced today that BUMI (Backup My Info!), the premium provider of managed online backup and recovery solutions for small to mid-sized businesses, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. Manhattan-based BUMI (Backup My Info!) is a premium managed service provider specializing in online data backup and recovery. Founded in 2002, the company's data backup and recovery service is utilized by more than 500 businesses while its partner program currently boasts over 40 active partners. BUMI clients include professional service organizations such as banking, financial, insurance, accounting, hedge funds and law firms. BUMI has won numerous awards including 2011 Customer Service Provider of the Year and 10 Best Companies to Work For (New York Enterprise Report), 2010 “16 Hot Companies Running Under the Radar” (eWeek), 2010 Windows IT Pro Editors’ Best and Community Choice Awards (Best Backup Software Product).

Don’t Let Your Hybrid Cloud Collapse into a Black Hole

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:33:00 EDT

A PMTUD black hole can cause a particularly subtle set of issues in hybrid cloud-based environments where the cloud resources are connected to a corporate office or other datacenter via IPSec tunnels. PMTUD black holes basically cause certain (but not all) traffic to not make it through the tunnel. Before we get down and dirty into the problems with PMTUD, let's quickly go over what PMTUD is. PMTUD stands for Path Maximum Transmission Unit Discovery and it is a protocol/algorithm defined in RFC 1191 that determines the best packet size for IPv4 datagrams flowing between any two given hosts. In this way, it attempts to optimize traffic through the Internet by using the largest possible datagram that doesn't require intermediary routers to fragment the traffic (since fragmentation and, more importantly, reassembly are expensive operations for routers to perform).

Disaster Recovery on Demand

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:45:00 EDT

Our prior post, A Roadmap to High-Value Cloud Infrastructure: Disaster Recovery and Data Protection, discussed both the benefits and limitations of a cloud-based disaster recovery (DR) strategy. As we highlighted last week, traditional disaster recovery options leave open a huge hole: At one extreme are high-cost, quick recovery time options using hosted or colocation sites and at the other extreme are low-cost, long recovery time options such as tape or disk backup. As a result, organizations who cannot afford a cold or hot standby site have been left to either cobble together a complicated and risky DR strategy or rely solely on offsite data protection, which affords them limited business continuity.

AWS GovCloud Meets FedRAMP Standard

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:45:00 EDT

Amazon Web Services said Tuesday that its GovCloud (US) in all US AWS regions has gotten an Agency Authority to Operate (ATO) from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) requirements at the moderate-impact level. FedRAMP is a US government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. Since AWS has demonstrated it can meet FedRAMP’s security requirements, a wider range of government customers can use it to store, process and protect a diverse array of sensitive government data.

Amazon Cloud Services Cleared for Government Use

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:15:00 EDT

Amazon.com Inc has been given a security clearance by the U.S. government that will make it easier for federal agencies to use its cloud computing services. Amazon Web Services, known as AWS, was certified to operate as a cloud service provider for three years under the government’s new FedRAMP program. The accreditation covers all AWS...

Cloud Expo New York: Many Clouds and APIs but One OpenStack and jclouds

Wed, 22 May 2013 06:00:00 EDT

In an ideal developer/systems administrator’s world, most applications would deploy seamlessly to multiple platforms and scale elastically with minimal effort bringing the unprecedented agility of the cloud within immediate reach of developer teams and IT organizations. OpenStack, a RackSpace and NASA initiative, is now managed by an independent foundation and is supported by multiple vendors. It defines APIs for compute, storage, networking, services, monitoring, and additional infrastructure services. jclouds is an open source library that helps you get started in the cloud and utilizes your Java or Clojure development skills. The jclouds API gives you the freedom to use portable abstractions for cloud-specific features. It's a cross-cloud toolkit that works with both public and private clouds, enabling hybrid cloud workloads.

Dell Discontinues IaaS Cloud to Sell Third Parties

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:30:00 EDT

Fancy that. Dell said Monday that its “current in-house multi-tenant public cloud IaaS will be discontinued in the US in favor of best-in-class partner offerings” that it’ll deliver as a single-source supplier. While it’s preaching the gospel of customer choice, it’s saving badly needed money in the guise of freedom from vendor lock-in and a single point of control. It calls the concept the Cloud Partners Program. Joyent, ScaleMatrix and ZeroLag have signed up. Dell expects to add more clouds and go beyond IaaS depending on customer reaction.

How Cloud-Based Collaboration Boosts Performance

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:45:00 EDT

Online collaboration has evolved during the last decade, delivering even greater value -- thanks to a new generation of business technology applications. Forbes Insights released "Collaborating in the Cloud," a Cisco-sponsored study examining the ways business leaders increasingly look at cloud collaboration as a way to increase productivity, accelerate business results and enhance innovation across borders and functions. The research combines a global survey of more than 500 executives with 15 executive interviews. "The ability to collaborate in the cloud is becoming a key driver of competitive advantage," says Bruce Rogers, Chief Insights Officer of Forbes Media. "Leading companies are doing more to foster cloud-based collaboration -- not only internally, but also with an ever-wider swath of external groups including customers, suppliers, partners, and even regulators." The benefits of cloud-based collaboration, Rogers continues, include "greater efficiency, organizational dexterity, and innovation," to name only a few.

Dell Can’t Make Out Icahn’s Proposal

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:15:00 EDT

Dell’s board has again asked billionaire Carl Icahn and his buddy Southeastern Asset Management for more information about their proposal to take over the company. Icahn asked Dell for more information after Dell posted its quarterly results last week and Dell flatly said “no.” It wants to scope out Icahn’s intentions and see if they’re better than founder Michael Dell’s.

Cloud Expo New York: The Who, What and How of Selling Cloud to SMBs

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:15:00 EDT

Compuware Extends APMaaS Platform

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:33:00 EDT

Compuware Corporation has announced the convergence of dynaTrace PurePath® Technology and the Gomez Performance Network, creating a powerful User Experience Management (UEM) solution. Compuware now offers a APMaaS solution that provides a complete UEM offering, including real-user, synthetic, third-party service monitoring and business impact analysis. Compuware’s APMaaS delivery model, auto-instrumentation and single-click to root cause diagnostics for both real user and synthetic transactions provides a deep and broad insight into application performance with a fast time-to-value. Compuware APMaaS enables organizations to optimize user experience, manage performance, availability and service levels from a unified real-user and synthetic perspective, all within a single on-demand platform.

Cloud Computing Bootcamp at Cloud Expo New York: Full Agenda

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:30:00 EDT

New, "Super-Sized" 4-Day Cloud Computing Bootcamp is a brief introduction to cloud computing carefully created and devised to help you keep up with evolving trends like Big Data, PaaS, APIs, Mobile, Social and Data Analytics. Solutions built around these topics require a sound cloud computing infrastructure to be successful while assisting customers harvest real benefits from this transformational change that is happening in the IT ecosystem.

Are Legos the Building Blocks of the Cloud?

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:45:00 EDT

Legos have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest, fondest memories involve Legos - starting from a small car made from a couple of simple bricks to very complex spaceships and wild creatures. I’m always amazed at how nicely and cleanly they snap together to create something solid, functional, and – in the case of the Millennium Falcon – amazing. Let’s be honest, I’m not the only one occasionally sneaking down Target’s Lego aisle to discover what new theme they’ve cooked up from the same core concept: clicking bricks together. It’s magical what happens to the brain when snapping those colorful, simple blocks into place. Visions of larger, cooler creations are conjured and we find ourselves scrambling for additional blocks to connect to create something that has a whole new purpose or function.

Cloud Computing – The Wave of the Future

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:00:00 EDT

“Trust is an ongoing journey and sits at the foundation of any vendor relationship – the companies that don’t consistently earn trust won’t be around long,” noted Henrik Rosendahl, Senior VP of Cloud Solutions at Quantum, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “As they do more with cloud, trust will organically grow – maybe it’s just about meeting SLAs or seeing firsthand that data is there when you need it,” Rosendahl continued. Cloud Computing Journal: The move to cloud isn't about saving money, it is about saving time. – Agree or disagree? Henrik Rosendahl: I believe it is actually both. Time is money, as they say. I typically think in terms of efficiency, which encompasses economics as well as the positive impact on administrative workflows. This is certainly true when we talk about cloud-based backup as a service (BaaS). Typically with BaaS customers, the first question is “How much is this going to cost?” Monthly costs are primarily capacity-driven – store more, pay more; however, you don’t have to buy future capacity that’s not being used for a while so in that sense you save a lot of money. Cloud-based backup and archive solutions enable companies to reduce or eliminate tape, as well as realize the promise of true business continuity. Another benefit of cloud-based solutions, particularly when it comes to backup, is in paying only for the capacity you immediately need, with the ability to scale up as needed, and convert CAPEX to OPEX, which is an important element of flexibility.

The Answer to Data Scientist Scarcity Lies in Automation

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:15:00 EDT

If zettabytes of data exist, why is less than 1% of the world’s data being analyzed today? Seasoned entrepreneur and startup CEO Radhika Subramanian believes that the inability to analyze and gain value from Big Data is that organizations are taking a services-centered approach. As the title of the session implies, Subramanian believes that the data needs to do the talking, not armies of analysts searching and querying databases. Her company has developed high-speed, advanced algorithms to automate pattern detection for rapid, real-time discovery of the “unknown unknows” in structured and unstructured data. Subramanian teams up with internationally renowned High-Performance Computing luminary Dr. David Bader to tackle Big Data’s biggest challenges. Together they ask, 'What if you didn't have to analyze data at all?'

The Who, What and How of Selling Cloud to SMBs

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:00:00 EDT

Cloud enables SMBs to access new, scalable resources – previously only available to enterprises – in flexible and cost-effective ways. McKinsey’s SMB Cloud Report projects the public cloud market to reach $40-$50 billion by 2015, with SMBs comprising 65% of public cloud spending in 2015. But selling cloud to SMBs raises the questions of who, what and how. In this session Manjula Talreja, VP of Cisco’s Global Cloud Business Development Team, will discuss the importance of knowing who SMBs are through market segmentation; understanding what cloud services they will consume; and understanding how best to sell to SMBs and from which channels. Speaker Bio: Manjula Talreja is Vice President Global Cloud Business Development for Cisco, where she is creating new business models and partnerships with technology vendors, SPs and SIs in cloud. In addition to her focus on key customers and partners, she is helping shape the next phase of Cisco’s enterprise cloud strategy. She is a highly sought-after industry thought-leader, and was recently named to CableFAX Magazine’s ‘Most Powerful Women in Cable 2012’.

Convergence and Interoperability Will Define Next-Gen Cloud Architectures

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:00:00 EDT

Our more interconnected planet is accelerating the adoption and convergence of next-generation architectures, in the form of cloud, mobile and instrumented physical assets. Organizations that can effectively balance optimization and innovation, will be in a position to leverage new systems of engagement, out maneuver their peers and achieve desired outcomes. In the Opening Keynote at 12th Cloud Expo | Cloud Expo New York, IBM GM & Next Generation Platform CTO Dr Danny Sabbah will detail the critical architectural considerations and success factors organizations must internalize to successfully implement, optimize and innovate using next generation architectures.

When APM Meets Big Data – Making Your Hadoop Jobs Faster

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:00:00 EDT

Analyzing Hadoop jobs and speeding them up is often a tedious and time consuming effort that requires experts. In his upcoming session at 12th Cloud Expo | Cloud Expo New York [10-13 June, 2013], Michael Kopp will be showing how proven APM techniques can be used to speed up Hadoop jobs at the core, without going through tons of log files, beyond just adding more hardware and within minutes instead of hours or days.

Business Transformation with Cloud – Is Your Organization 'Cloud-Ready'?

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:15:00 EDT

Organizations across the world are increasingly starting to see the benefits of moving more and more services to the cloud. The focus on the cost-saving potential of cloud is rapidly shifting to completely transforming the business with cloud. As organizations are investing enormous sums on technology they are starting to realize that in order to maximize the return on investment and accelerate the business transformation process the first area of focus should be people. By ensuring the organization is 'cloud-ready' the organizational adoption will be much faster and much better. A workforce ready and eager to maximize the potential value and benefit will more readily embrace a cloud strategy.

Cloud Expo NY: Virtualization, Compliance, and Healthcare in the Cloud

Mon, 20 May 2013 02:30:00 EDT

Learn about the complex regulations surrounding HIPAA compliance and other considerations for running sensitive data in the Cloud. In their session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Frank Nydam, Director of Healthcare Solutions at VMware, and Ken Ziegler, CEO of Logicworks, will discuss the best practices for leveraging virtualization and cloud technologies without sacrificing security or compliance. Care providers, State and Federal entities, integrators and SaaS providers large and small will benefit from understanding the basics of protecting sensitive healthcare data, including PHI and EMR, in today’s fast-paced environment. The HIPAA Omnibus Rule and Business Associates Agreements (BAA) will also be covered in this important session for compliance-sensitive organizations.

Cloud Computing and Data Residency Laws

Sun, 19 May 2013 17:00:00 EDT

Cloud service providers store data all over the globe, and are constantly moving that data from one datacenter to the next for reasons as wide-ranging as cost considerations and redundancy requirements. Does this mean that the requirements outlined in varying data residency laws and privacy regulations are directly at odds with how cloud computing works? The question is an especially delicate one when the cloud service provider stores and processes data in a jurisdiction that is perceived to have far less stringent privacy and data protection requirements – or may allow government agencies far broader data subpoena powers. Since the cloud computing model relies on distributed infrastructure to generate cost and flexibility benefits for customers, building a datacenter in each data residency jurisdiction quickly becomes cost-prohibitive. And, applying a set of constraints to the movement of data introduces an additional layer of complexity that further erodes the value proposition of cloud computing for customers.

Cloud Expo NY: Adopting Cloud Solutions from the Couch to the Corporation

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:00:00 EDT

Enterprise cloud adoption revolves around pushing the BYOD movement and focusing on data security. In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Ross Brouse, COO and President of Solar VPS, will cover how cloud adoption is driven by consumerism, humanity’s need to socialize, our addiction to new gadgets and the ability of data to stay secure in a growing collaborative world. The cloud is a drug and we’re just getting hooked. Ross Brouse is the COO and President of Solar VPS. He is a true creative thinker. He believes the solution to most challenges involves discipline, positive reinforcement and innovative problem solving. As an industry leader, he draws from decades of experience in film and television production, graphic design and development, and managed IT. A graduate of New York University, Ross founded FortressITX's subsidiary company, Solar VPS, in 2005.

Don’t Believe the Hype: Getting to the Promise of Big Data

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:00:00 EDT

Companies around the world are collecting massive amounts of data everyday that’s sitting around and not being utilized. Take for example the fact that companies collect demographic and location-based data via mobile devices all the time, but have to figure out how to monetize that data. In this session, Joyent CTO and founder Jason Hoffman will examine the state of Big Data, taking a look at what we're doing now to discussing what's on the horizon, as companies prepare and realign their business strategies for new streams of revenue.

Cloud Expo New York: Introducing the Open Cloud Exchange

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:00:00 EDT

The cloud-enabled data center sits at the center of IT transformation. It facilitates the interconnection and communities that come together, propelling growth for both buyers and sellers. In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Gerry Fassig, CoreSite’s Vice President of Sales, will discuss how CoreSite is bringing together best-of-breed partners through the Open Cloud Exchange resulting in public, private, and hybrid cloud interconnection and management as well as connectivity to AWS direct connect. Gerry Fassig is CoreSite’s Vice President of Sales for the cloud/hosting service provider industry. He possesses more than 20 years of enterprise and start-up sales leadership experience and leads a national team responsible for acquiring, retaining and managing service providers of all sizes. Prior to joining CoreSite, he held senior sales and management positions with Savvis, helping drive strategic growth throughout the organization during the Exodus/Cable and Wireless acquisitions. Before Savvis, he held various leadership roles at Wheelhouse, a CRM strategy consultancy and at Gartner.

Zyrion Named “Entrance Carpet Sponsor” of Cloud Expo New York

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:00:00 EDT

SYS-CON Events announced today that Zyrion Inc., the leading provider of Cloud and IT Monitoring software solutions, has been named “Entrance Carpet Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. Zyrion is the leading provider of integrated Cloud and Network monitoring software for distributed and complex datacenter environments, and offers the most scalable monitoring platform in the industry. Zyrion's flagship Traverse software provides correlated, end-to-end, application service-oriented views of the IT infrastructure. Zyrion's monitoring software is used by large enterprises and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) worldwide. Zyrion has its corporate offices in Sunnyvale, California.

Backup, Recovery, Archiving, and the Cloud

Sun, 19 May 2013 10:00:00 EDT

Backup, Recovery, and Archiving (BURA) are critical elements for IT to address. BURA solutions need to address a broad spectrum of needs including data protection, regulatory compliance, and business continuity. Today's cloud based solutions can enable customers to procure and consume BURA as a service supported by EMC's latest technologies. At the end of Rich Place's session at 12th Cloud Expo | Cloud Expo New York [June 10-13, 2013], you will be able to: 1. Gain a full understanding of Backup, Recovery, and Archiving (BURA), also known as Backup as a Service incorporating EMC's latest technologies. 2. Share the experiences of a cloud service providers BURA implementations and portfolio 3. Have an opportunity to ask questions regarding SHI's Backup as a Service offering and experiences with partners and customers

Apptio Closes $45 Million E Round

Sun, 19 May 2013 07:00:00 EDT

Apptio, which knows how to gauge the total cost of IT services, has gotten a mighty $45 million E round that it means to invest in its platform and its international expansion, immediately in Western Europe. Counting the new money the company has now seen $136 million in funding since late 2007. The latest round was led by new investments from funds managed by Janus Capital, the Hillman Company, and a secret unnamed global institutional investor. Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, Madrona Venture Group, Shasta Ventures and T. Rowe Price also kicked in. Apptio figures “IT costs are moving from fixed to variable, computing assets are shifting from owned to shared, and business executives increasingly expect the CIO to play a more strategic role, spending less resources ‘keeping the lights on’ and more on innovation that drives the business forward.” It positions its TBM widgetry as a “must have” set of business management applications and analytics for the Global 2000.

MetraTech Named “Bronze Sponsor” of Cloud Expo New York

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:00:00 EDT

SYS-CON Events announced today that MetraTech Corp., the leading provider of agreements-based billing™, commerce and compensation solutions, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. MetraTech Corp. is the leading provider of commerce, billing and compensation solutions enabling customers to monetize relationships with customers, partners, and suppliers. Its unique Agreements-Based Billing ™ and Compensation platform models and supports fluid, personalized, multi-party agreements. MetraTech is the only monetization provider with an extensible metadata-driven architecture that makes it simple for customers to model and configure products and services, pricing plans, new business models and to change them in rapid response to market demands or customer behavior. Customers can select the customizable full control MetraNet® platform, available on-premise or as a managed service or a turnkey SaaS solution with the Metanga® offering.

Cloud Expo NY: Essential Open Source Software for Building the Open Cloud

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:15:00 EDT

Cloud computing is more than a buzz-phrase it’s a transformative IT paradigm shift. The emphasis in the cloud is on elasticity, scalability, agility and open. Not just open standards but open APIs and open source. The delivery of software is also going through a paradigm shift. Open source software was often a commoditization of a market leader; Unix to Linux or Oracle to MySQL what’s changing is that the iterative nature, user context and the motto of releasing early and often are driving real innovation in open source. In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Mark Hinkle, Senior Director, Open Source Solutions at Citrix, will cover those essential open source technologies for delivering cloud computing in the enterprise.

Cloud Expo New York | Storage & Archive: Are Existing Offerings Relevant?

Sat, 18 May 2013 13:00:00 EDT

Storage and Archive offerings are now exploding on the market. From end-user mobile devices to company tactical level, the cloud has become a black hole for every kind of data. But what are the risks, and what are the real needs? In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Alexandre Morel, Cloud Product Manager & Evangelist at OVH.com, will answer questions such as: How to develop a strategy to use those offers as a base to develop mid and long-term value? Should companies trust the cloud (Dedicated or Public) or rely on some other solutions? How to select the right solution for the right internal need? Which best of breed approaches can be used?

Cloud Expo New York: Getting to the Promise of Big Data

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:00:00 EDT

Companies around the world are collecting massive amounts of data everyday that’s sitting around and not being utilized. Take for example the fact that companies collect demographic and location-based data via mobile devices all the time, but have to figure out how to monetize that data. In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Jason Hoffman, CTO & Founder of Joyent, will examine the state of Big Data, taking a look at what we're doing now to discussing what's on the horizon, as companies prepare and realign their business strategies for new streams of revenue.

Part 2 | Understand the Impact of IT on Business

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:00:00 EDT

Part 2 of a two part blog series looking at the journey enterprise IT departments take as they increasingly seek to understand the relationships and impact of IT infrastructure performance on application performance and business services. Through observation, Fred notices that even though his alarms, based on dynamic baselines, catch problems in his environment, they’re also catching busy days, quiet days, and even slightly odd days. He starts to realize that just looking at the level of metrics is necessary, but not sufficient. Fred also needs to look at how the metrics work together – he needs statistical correlation.

Cloud Expo New York: Enabling the Cloud for Big Data

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:45:00 EDT

With the right tools, file storage today can be in the cloud or on-premise, with seamless and secure access and publishing regardless of location. Novel, high-speed transport technologies that alleviate the bottlenecks and limitations of traditional data movement protocols are now intrinsically enabled for cloud object storage, such as Amazon Web Services S3 and Microsoft Windows Azure. Companies of all types and sizes can use the latest technology to ingest and distribute large media files to and from Windows Azure BLOB storage, for example, and integrate the platform into media services running on the Azure cloud. In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Jason Warman, Director of Sales Engineering at Aspera, Inc., will explore how infrastructure-agnostic transport technologies are transforming the ways all kinds of organizations access and use Big Data for ever-greater efficiencies and innovation.

Cloud Expo New York: Stairway to the Cloud

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:00:00 EDT

The world is connected in an unprecedentedly accelerating way. Where government and Enterprise IT buyers once led, now consumers and end users lead. Accordingly, the economics of cloud computing are dramatically changing the way businesses expect to procure IT services. In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Jeff Katzen, Senior Manager of Cloud Business Solutions for Savvis, will explain how customers of all sizes are expecting hybrid capabilities that can be consumed and paid for on demand. They are expecting their cloud services to be delivered via an agile service provider that is able to drive out complexity and increase interoperability. They expect a connected cloud.

Cloud Expo New York: The Next-Generation IT Department – Must Have Cloud

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:00:00 EDT

Compelling consumer applications are created every day. Are you ready for the IT implications both internally and externally? As your datacenter needs more capacity, the cloud will be critical to success. What are the key considerations to help plan for the needed capacity over time? And how can the cloud best work with your existing applications? In his General Session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Brian Jawalka, Enterprise Solutions Architect at Rackspace Hosting, will open conversation to talk about the SaaS consumer apps that are forcing IT to evolve. Learn how a hybrid approach can add agility, flexibility and speed-to-market for your organization.