Latest News from Cloud Computing Journal

Down-to-Earth Contracts that Keep the Cloud Aloft

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST

This article looks at the basic interoperability requirements when communicating with the Cloud, and in particular at techniques and standards used to express and enforce wire-level contracts between communicating parties, as these parties are increasingly also contracting parties in a Cloud environment. Many standards already developed for Web services and service-oriented architectures provide to the communicating parties a good understanding and control of the expected quality of service at the most basic level of the interaction.

IBM Offers a Little Blue Insight

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:15:00 EST

In the interest of selling more widgetry to more people, IBM has transformed one of its mainframes into what it calls Blue Insight, a private cloud packed initially with a petabyte of structured and unstructured data that 200,000 of its sales, product development and manufacturing people can access to make a sale.

Intel Invests in Joyent’s Cloud

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:45:00 EST

Joyent, whose customers include ABC Disney, CNN, The Gap, Facebook, LinkedIn and Yahoo, developed its own custom OS and data center virtualization technology, which creates a multi-tenant cloud. It’s supposed to deliver more than 70% utilization, which is eight times more than industry averages according to Gartner.

RightScale To Support Azure

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:45:00 EST

RightScale, the cloud manager, plans to support Windows Azure and let customers deploy RightScale-managed applications and take advantage of Azure’s particular properties. It said it would support Azure infrastructure-level services through its new Service Management API like it does Amazon and Rackspace and give Azure users access to other cloud platforms. It didn’t say when.

NTT Uses OpSource to Compete with AT&T’s Cloud

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST

When Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), the world’s biggest telco, took a piece of the $10 million E series funding going into OpSource earlier this year, the pair reportedly didn’t know they would be going into the cloud business together – or that it would be on the same day that AT&T told people to stand by because it was about to launch an Infrastructure-as-a-Service that looks a lot like Amazon.

Azure Goes Live Next Year

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:30:00 EST

Except for a few companies that are clearly teacher’s pet, nobody will be going into production on Windows Azure, the Microsoft cloud, until January 1. Until then it remains a technology preview, with tens of thousands of developers already using it according to Microsoft’s chief software architect Ray Ozzie.

How the Enterprise Cloud Will Affect the Datacenter

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

There are a variety of applications that support numerous business lines across an enterprise. These applications exhibit a wide range of operational characteristics as they service the diverse business demands. That diversity is the key to business success, but it has consequences. Ask an enterprise application architect about how IT should run a data center and you will find that the range of behaviours exhibited across the portfolio of applications cannot be run on one set of standard platform configurations. Most critical applications have extreme operational requirements that require specialised adjustments to operating environments.

New Approach Needed to Cloud Security

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST

Arguably the greatest barrier to businesses taking full advantage of cloud computing is the issue of security. Recent high-profile breaches of the cloud (the attack on Twitter being perhaps the most publicized) have only served to heighten concerns. It’s true; the potential consequences of a breach of cloud security are catastrophic, and this knowledge has served to make the debate rage even more fiercely. A cloud security issue within an organization has the potential to be a major business crisis, and against a backdrop of heightened public awareness of data loss and privacy issues such as ID theft, it’s understandable.

Move Over BI, Here Comes PI - Performance Intelligence

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:00:00 EST

"As companies such as MySpace continue to expand the richness of their site, the big thing is trying to seek a higher level of customer experience by replicating "beyond capacity" in a test environment, so that a company can see what it is exactly that they will need when traffic surges to peak levels and beyond, so that they know the "risk points" of their own success," Tom Lounibos, CEO of SOASTA, told SYS-CON's Jeremy Geelan in an interview with Cloud Computing Journal on the day that SOASTA announced a significant test of the newly launched MySpace Music Videos hub using the Cloud.

Cloud Computing Is ...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:45:00 EST

Techcrunch reports that Google has some implicit suggestions about newspapers, based on the drop-down suggestions it gives when you begin a search with "Newspapers are." It's a nice example of the hive mind at work. But check out the first suggestion Google gives you if you type "Cloud Computing is" into a Google search bar. I won't spoil the surprise here. Interestingly, Google used to give similar suggestions for "SOA is", but the results are now a lot less frank and confrontational than they were a month ago. Does this show a change in general attitude about SOA, or is it just that Google cleaned up the results? hmm.

Ulitzer Names the World's 30 Most Influential Cloud Computing Bloggers

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:45:00 EST

Ulitzer.com announced today the World's 30 most influential Cloud bloggers collectively generated more than 24 million Ulitzer page views. Ulitzer's annual "most influential Cloud bloggers" list was announced at the "Ulitzer Live! New Media Power Panel" at the Santa Clara Convention Center, California. The first "Ulitzer New Media Power Panel" took place during 4th International Cloud Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California, and streamed live to more than 60,000 viewers via SYS-CON.TV. The panel was moderated by Jeremy Geelan (http://jeremygeelan.ulitzer.com). Geelan's guests in the first power panel were Ian Thain (http://ianthain.ulitzer.com) and Tim Crawford (http://timcrawford.ulitzer.com).

Cloud Converter for Force.com Now Available

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:30:00 EST

Salesforce.com Dreamforce Conference -- Model Metrics, the leader in cloud computing services for the enterprise and a premier partner of salesforce.com, today announced the availability of Cloud Converter for Force.com on the salesforce.com AppExchange. With Cloud Converter, Salesforce CRM and Force.com users can convert an Excel spreadsheet into an application on Force.com with just a few simple clicks. The announcement was made today at Dreamforce 2009, salesforce.com's user and developer conference.

Dreamforce - Lots of Chatter

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:54:00 EST

The first thing I have to say about Dreamforce is WHOA! 19,000 people registered this year, from 60 countries. So many were in attendance that they had to have an overflow room for about 3,000 to watch Marc Benioff's keynote from afar. Salesforce.com clearly wants to see everything in the cloud...their cloud. What's not to like? A multi-tennant, pay-as-you-go, elastic...

Eucalyptus: Clouding Privately

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST

In our constant pursuit of exploring new technologies, we stumbled upon the Eucalyptus and greatly contemplated on its installation. Being driven by our leaning towards cloud. Eucalyptus really clouded our minds and we decided, "no pain, no gain". And here we are having successfully installed Eucalyptus and here is how we did it. We have the Cloud Controller, the Cluster Controller and Node Controller all up and running. But the document is still a draft version.

Our Experience with AWS

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST

We have been working with Amazon Web Services for the last couple of months for various things and thouhgt of sharing our key findings with you all. First of all, I would like to thank Amazon for providing such a great experience to us , a simple webservice call , an instance of a computer up and running. When we started our exploration, we got an account with Amazon and working with S3 for quite some time. It is an another service for storage and works well for its cause.

AWS Workshop, Chennai

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:30:00 EST

With the onset of the Monsoons in Chennai there were Cloud of a different kind looming, and the Met Department was evangelizing them; there was also another Cloud Evangelist in Chennai, Jinesh Varia evangelizing Clouds of different kind, the Amazon Clouds.

Hosted Solutions Expands the Stratus Trusted Cloud, Unveiling Hybrid Option, Complementing Existing Offerings

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST

Hosted Solutions, the East Coast’s premier provider of IT infrastructure as a service (IaaS), today expanded the range of its Stratus Trusted Cloud™ offering, introducing the availability of a hybrid option giving companies the industry’s widest range of options on how and where to more effectively host their IT infrastructures.

Enterprise IT Innovation with Cloud Transformation Services

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST

Trusted by Fortune 500 multinationals and national governments, Astadia's rigorous engagement methodology was developed over two decades of experience with transformational client projects. Many firms claim that customers can save money merely by moving applications to the cloud. Astadia's engagement model focuses on working with clients to quantify business value in detail and prioritize projects based on sophisticated analysis and a clear roadmap. Comprehensive multi-vendor solutions transform IT budgets, replacing lower value maintenance and upkeep activities with new drivers for profitability and growth.

Cloud Shows Promise During Navy Trident Warrior Exercise

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST

During a recent interview, Robert Carey, Navy Chief Information Officer, also stated that cloud computing offered real value to the Navy. Citing that both the Navy Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) and Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) programs will leverage cloud computing, he envisioned a future day when "Grey clouds" within a ship's hull would eventually transition to clouds within the battle group. The increased IT efficiency delivered through cloud computing would also enhance mission accomplishment by making more resources available for investment into naval mission platforms (ships and planes). Mr. Carey sees ready access to authoritative data from the cloud as an important enabler to a real-time/near real-time decision making process, saying that the cloud delivers the ability to have a ubiquitous computing environment and interoperability. After observing the experiment, SPAWAR representatives showed similar sentiments, saying that the Navy was actively considering the use of cloud computing technologies as part of its Naval Networks Enterprise-2016 strategy

How to generate CloudFront Private URLs using Canned Policy

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:24:00 EST

This is a second article related to CloudFront Private Content feature that allows you restrict the access to your content. Apparently CloudFront private content configuration is not straight forward and involves many steps as described in our previous post. You have to configure your distribution to support private content, generate keys, create policies and finally sign URLs. CloudFront users wanted something simple similar to Amazon S3 Query String authentication.

New OpSource Cloud Partner Programs

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:15:00 EST

OpSource announced three innovative OpSource Cloud partner programs that offer incentives, discounts and easy technology on-ramps for individuals and companies of all sizes looking to enter the lucrative cloud computing space. Available for online purchase by the hour from www.opsourcecloud.net, OpSource Cloud is the first cloud to bring together the flexibility, availability and community of the public cloud with the security, performance and control the enterprise requires. To take advantage of OpSource Cloud's power and help hasten mass adoption of cloud computing, OpSource is offering a referral plan, SI/Developer/VAR discount program and a white label technology opportunity. These plans enable third parties to share cloud revenues and quickly build businesses in this white hot space.

COSS BI: Open Source, Open Core or Openly Naked?

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:45:00 EST

Peter Yared wrote recently a BusinessWeek guest blog post called “Failure of Commercial Open Source Software.” Not surprisingly his post caused a lot of angry replies from people who work for COSS companies. “The emperor is not naked” they argued. I believe that the COSS emperor is openly naked. And the discussion shouldn’t be whether COSS [...]

Zeus Software Now Available on Amazon EC2

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:00:00 EST

Zeus Technology today announces its flagship web traffic management solution, Zeus Traffic Manager 6.0, is available on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). The solution gives companies access to extra computing power with the tools to deliver exceptional online services on a pay-as-you-go basis. The platform will make web development easier for companies and developers. Using a simple web service interface, users can monitor and control web traffic and automate maintenance to ensure online services are always fast and available even during high peaks in web traffic.

SugarCRM on Windows Azure Cloud Computing Platform

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:45:00 EST

SugarCRM today announced that it will offer its CRM applications on Windows Azure to enable its customers and value-added resellers to benefit from the real-time scalability, high availability and on-demand infrastructure of Microsoft Corp.’s cloud platform for web applications and services. “With Windows Azure, Microsoft has built a true cloud computing platform going well beyond the simple hosted infrastructure that most service providers offer today,” said Larry Augustin, CEO of SugarCRM. “Windows Azure enables SugarCRM value-added resellers to create and deploy unique solutions for customers around the globe. This new service is another key component of the Sugar Open Cloud, the SugarCRM cloud strategy for delivering simple, affordable CRM anywhere based on customer need. Sugar on Windows Azure combines the most user-friendly CRM application on the market with a highly available, scalable and secure cloud computing platform.”

Hybridfox: Cross of Elasticsfox and Imagination

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

Now we have a Eucalyptus' Private Cloud installed and running on our premise, and it remained kinda of an artifact in our data-center for sometime. So I thought why has not someone written anything about how make to make Elasticfox work with Eucalyptus. But there were quite a few pointers to what version will be ideally suited to use for Eucalyptus, like this one, thanks Ajmf. I took the cue from there, I enabled debugging on elasticfox, and used firebug to dig deeper. And I came up with Hybridfox, yeah, and it works.

Amazon Backs Zeus

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:30:00 EST

Zeus Technology, the application traffic management folk, has ported the weeks-old edition of its web traffic management widgetry to Amazon EC2 with Amazon's help - including how to word Tuesday's announcement - despite the fact that Amazon has its own unashamedly rudimentary load balancing. One might conclude that Amazon knows a good thing when it sees it and is backing it to retain the hearts and minds of its followers. Maybe it'll improve its own widgetry over time but now is now.

Rapidly Develop, Test & Deploy Windows Azure Applications Using the GoGrid Cloud

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:54:00 EST

Just in time for the Microsoft PDC 2009, GoGrid is excited to showcase an integrated solution for Windows Azure™ developers, using the GoGrid Cloud for seamlessly building and deploying applications for Windows Azure. Our solution interoperates with the existing GoGrid infrastructure and includes preconfigured development environments which allows developers to build applications and publish [...]

Cast Iron's Cloud Integration Solution Wins Award

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:00:00 EST

Cast Iron Systems announced that it has won the Best of SaaS Showplace Award, presented by THINKstrategies, the leading strategic consulting company focused on the business implications of the on-demand services market. The Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Award program recognizes the SaaS companies delivering solutions that produce measurable business benefits for their customers.

AgilePath Announces Cloud Computing Practice

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:30:00 EST

AgilePath IT management consulting firm, today announced the launch of its Cloud Computing Practice. AgilePath's Cloud practice builds on its other consulting practices and competencies, which focus on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Business Process Management (BPM), Enterprise Governance Solutions, and IT Acquisition Innovation. "AgilePath is pleased to formally launch our Cloud Computing Practice," stated AgilePath CEO Eric Marks. "Cloud computing is an important IT evolutionary trend, and as with SOA, we will bring significant thought leadership and technical expertise to bear on the many challenges and enterprise benefits offered by Cloud computing."

Judith Hurwitz Authors "Cloud Computing for Dummies"

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST

Cloud Computing has become the most important business trend of the decade. It has the potential to be as important to the way companies use technology as the Internet. While business and technology leaders are aware of the importance of the cloud, there is much confusion about what it is and how it can help transform their businesses. Addressing this need, Hurwitz & Associates has spent the last 18 months conducting in-depth research that resulted in an easy to understand business book that clarifies the economic and technical foundations of cloud computing.

AT&T to Compete with Amazon Cloud

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:45:00 EST

AT&T today announced AT&T Synaptic Compute as a Service, its latest innovative global cloud-based service, designed to give companies of all sizes simple on-demand access to scalable computing capacity. Using technology from VMware and Sun Microsystems, AT&T's Synaptic Compute as a Service provides companies with a self-service approach for using IT solutions that are reliably delivered by AT&T over its highly-secure world-class network cloud. Customers can use the service to quickly address demands for variable computing processing power and expand capacity to scale with their business requirements. In turn, AT&T delivers computing processing capacity that can scale to meet a business's immediate demand, along with management of the network, server, hardware and storage.

Extending SOA to Cloud Computing

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST

WSO2, the open source SOA company, today announced the launch of the WSO2 Cloud Platform. Available today, the new WSO2 Cloud Platform features a family of WSO2 Cloud Virtual Machines; WSO2 Cloud Connectors for enabling fast, secure cloud services; and the multi-tenant WSO2 Governance-as-a-Service. All WSO2 Cloud Platform services are based on open software standards, and they support all applicable interoperable protocols, as well as relevant open data standards. Additionally, they allow users to take complete control of their data, ensuring that enterprises can protect and preserve their information.

Government Cloud Computing Value Survey

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:15:00 EST

As part of a continuing Government Cloud computing education program, Dataline, LLC has released a Government Cloud Computing Value Survey. This online resource has been designed as an aid to help Federal agencies explore the value of cloud computing. Through a 15 minute interactive session.

iLinc for Salesforce CRM Now Available on the Salesforce.com AppExchange

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:30:00 EST

iLinc, a provider of web and video conferencing solutions and services, today announced the availability of iLinc for Salesforce CRM on the AppExchange. iLinc for Salesforce CRM combines iLinc’s feature-rich web collaboration and conferencing technology with the data management functionality of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, enabling organizations to host high-impact online events while ensuring real-time visibility into key registration and attendance information.

Netlist Demonstrates New HyperCloud Memory Modules

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:00:00 EST

Netlist is demonstrating the world's first 16GB 2 virtual rank (vRank) double-data-rate three, registered dual in-line memory module (DDR3 RDIMM), HyperCloud. Netlist will also showcase the interoperability of HyperCloud memory with standard JEDEC server memory solutions on popular enterprise servers. This demonstration reinforces HyperCloud's ability to function as a standard RDIMM while increasing memory bandwidth and capacity for datacenter servers.

Cloud Computing, Clouds publics, Clouds privés , Retour de la conférence Sys-Con à Santa Clara (Californie)

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:28:00 EST

(Remarque : texte plus long qu’à l’habitude) Après la conférence de SIIA, dont j’ai parlé récemment, j’étais aussi invité comme conférencier à la conférence organisée par Sys-Con sur le Cloud Computing. C’était la quatrième conférence que Sys-Con organisait sur ce...

Rackspace Cloud Biz Doubles

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:45:00 EST

Budding cloud merchant Rackspace Hosting came in with better-than-expected net revenue of $162.4 million for the September quarter, up 17.4% year-over-year and up 6.8% sequentially. Earnings were up 45.3% year-over-year to $7.6 million or six cents a share and up 8.8% quarter-over-quarter. Managed hosting revenue increased to $147.1 million, up 6% sequentially. Cloud revenue increased to $15.3 million, up 17% from the previous quarter. The company said its cloud business now represents ~10% of its total net revenues, up from 5% this time last year.

ScaleMP’s Talking BIG Clouds

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:45:00 EST

ScaleMP, which builds SMP machines for HPC by aggregating multiple x86 blades into a single virtual x86 system, has become one of the cloud people. It’s adding some widgetry called vSMP Foundation for Cloud, currently in beta, to its vSMP Foundation line. It enables the dynamic, on-the-fly aggregation of x86 servers into big SMP virtual systems – sort of like what 3Leaf is doing – but ScaleMP uses virtualization for the server aggregation and the software is cloud-specific, meant for provisioning and re-provisioning large virtual-machine resources – large memory capacity and high memory bandwidth, say – mostly in private clouds.

Tandberg Holds Cisco Up for More Money

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:15:00 EST

Cisco’s having trouble herding Tandberg’s shareholder into its pen. Despite the deal it cut with management, it’s only gotten 9.37% of the shareholders to accept its $3 billion cash offer for the videoconferencing equipment maker. They figure it’s worth more than Cisco’s 38% premium; Cisco doesn’t. The offer was set to expire Monday. Cisco has extended it till November 18. It says if it doesn’t have the necessary 90% by then it “will evaluate whether or not to withdraw the offer.” Cisco CEO John Chambers last week expressed confidence the deal would get done.

Vordel to Manage Multiple Clouds

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST

Tucked away right now in a private beta is a versatile Cloud Service Broker that sounds like it could be a very handy thing to have around once it’s delivered sometime in the first quarter. Gartner predicted such things would turn up to negotiate relationships between providers of cloud services and service consumers and manage access to the services, providing greater security and creating completely new services. How prescient of Gartner.

VoIP-News Phone Systems Buyer’s Guide

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST

Every business today is looking to cut costs in these slowing economic times. Now, learn how to save costs by choosing the right IP office phone system. Many companies are transitioning from either a Centrex service or Key system / PBX product to a state-of-the-art Hosted IP or IP PBX telephony solution for immediate cost savings.

Cycle Computing and Purdue University to Create Condor Pool

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:15:00 EST

Cycle Computing is supporting Purdue University in harnessing idle compute power to create a dynamic Condor pool at the upcoming SuperComputing 2009 conference, Nov. 14-20, in Portland, Ore. The on-site project will be a demonstration of high-performance computing (HPC) and open source solutions in the cloud.

The Role of the CTO & CIO in Cloud Computing

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST

Recently I asked a question on twitter, one I figured would stir up some debate. (Which was the point) The question was "Does the CTO matter any more with the rise of Cloud Computing or is it all about the CIO with data reigning supreme?"

Moving to the Cloud: Managing Your Environment

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:45:00 EST

This post is part of a series examining the issues involved when moving applications between internal data centers and public clouds.

One of the advantages of cloud computing is that someone else is managing the infrastructure – including the servers, network devices and storage systems, not to mention the data center power conditioning, cooling and fire suppression equipment. One of the costs of offloading this infrastructure is that the cloud becomes something different and separate from your data center. In most deployments today, the cloud is almost completely isolated from your data center, and this often requires changes in how you manage and interact with your applications.

So what does “management” mean in this context? I look at it in terms of provisioning resources and managing the infrastructure, operating systems and applications. Over the years a remarkable set of tools and processes has been developed to handle these tasks in the data center, and the challenge now is how you integrate all this investment with the new cloud deployments.

For provisioning, the cloud has a model similar to a data center virtualized environment, in that you can provision virtual resources from a pool of physical resources. However, the definition of these resources is dictated by the cloud provider, which means you have to adjust your processes to account for the capabilities and limitations imposed by the cloud, specifically CPU, memory and storage resources. To be successful in the cloud, you need to match the resources required for your application to the capabilities of the cloud (i.e., pick enough CPU/memory/etc. to meet your application’s requirements while balancing the costs of the cloud resources). If you already have a provisioning system, you need to expand and modify it to account for the cloud (e.g., add parameters to account for cloud capabilities, build connectors to the cloud API, tie into the cloud account mechanism, etc.). If you don’t have a system in place, you need to build a new process to access the cloud resources. The overriding issue for either approach is that there are no standards yet for cloud provisioning, so the work you do to tie into a cloud provider is not portable to another cloud. The promise of cloud products which offer multi-cloud capabilities is that they can connect you to different clouds using a common set of interfaces.

Managing your cloud infrastructure can be a lot of work. You need to integrate with an architecture defined by the cloud provider, using its specific primitives for working with cloud components. This requires tying into the cloud APIs for configuring IP addresses, subnets and firewalls, as well as data service functions for your storage. Because control of these functions is based on the cloud provider’s infrastructure and services, you also have to modify your internal processes and control systems to integrate with the cloud infrastructure management.

Even managing your operating systems as part of a cloud deployment presents challenges. Many cloud services provide “base servers” or templates that contain a simple distribution or OS, which are then used to build up your specific server/OS/application. This approach works well when the provider has the exact base server you want to start from, and you have a process in place to build from a running server. The challenge is that when you build up a server based on a gold image, it may: a) not match the base cloud OS version, b) be built from a non-running or base OS versus a fully-running OS (as required by most clouds), and c) use internal resources (boot servers, internal repositories, etc.) that are not available in the cloud. From a maintenance perspective, many organizations use central controls for updates (like WSUS for windows), and these services depend on access to data center networks and services. Since public clouds are running external to your data center, these services either won’t work, or need to be altered to run the hybrid environment.

Finally, the cloud creates additional complexity for managing applications. You almost always need to modify applications to accommodate cloud differences (virtual environment, networks and storage), which means that the applications in the cloud diverge from the “original” or base applications in your data center. You may also use third-party tools to help with integration into the cloud (such as VPN software, integration scripts, encryption software, etc.), which then need to be maintained. Each of these software elements has it its own lifecycle and update management, most of which apply to every image deployed into the cloud.

The management problems introduced by including the cloud in your infrastructure all have their source in the same issue – the cloud is something separate and different from your data center. This separation becomes clear when you consider the integration and management issues that span everything from provisioning to reengineering your applications to changes in lifecycle management. At CloudSwitch we’re streamlining and automating cloud management to eliminate most of these issues, and bridge the separation between the cloud and your data center.

Next: Key Considerations for Cloud Performance

Windows Azure Platform TCO/ROI Analysis Tool

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:15:00 EST

Microsoft just released a tool to help you figure out how much money you can save by switching to Windows Azure from your on-premises solution. The tool will provide you with a customized estimate of potential cost savings you (or your company or organization) may achieve by building on the Windows Azure Platform. Upon completion of [...] Related posts:

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IT Compliance Perspectives & Best Practices

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:15:00 EST

In this webcast, you will hear from Lisa J. Berry-Tayman, Esq, a legal expert specializing in Information Technology Law and from Don Bailey, a technology specialist at Mainline Information Systems who can help you sort through different solutions in the marketplace.

Energy Efficiency: Leverage Dynamic Infrastructure for Cost Savings

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST

Get the critical information you need to transform your data center by implementing a solution based on the greatest possible computing power with the lowest possible energy expenditure. View our educational webcast, “Energy Efficiency: Leverage Dynamic Infrastructure for Cost Savings, Improved Service & Risk Management,” lead by Steve Dowling, Architect and Level 10 Systems Engineer at Mainline Information Systems.

Business Resiliency Strategies: From Basic to Bullet-Proof

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:30:00 EST

In a time where companies and consumers rely on the internet for immediate results, we are seeing a shift in the amount of tolerance business leaders have for IT disruptions. Just one minute of downtime can have a negative impact on revenue. The very definition of a disruption has changed to include not just the traditional natural disaster, but any event that disturbs this fast-paced operational flow - from a merger or acquisition, to a new government regulation, to a scheduled system upgrade. This course will cover the latest best practices for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery planning. We will hear from BCDR technology and solutions experts as well as a Senior Business Continuity Manager from a leading financial Institution, who will be sharing their lessons learned.

Demystifying the Cloud: Important Opportunities, Crucial Choices

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:15:00 EST

The growing popularity of outsourced computing is no surprise. Together, with the now wide-availability of compact, commodity servers has fueled the demand for a wide range of cloud computing models. The promise? The ability to instantly acquire – and just as quickly dispose of – infrastructure elements needed to perform computing tasks of any scale, at lower costs and lower capital.

The Future of Cloud Computing Belongs to Asia

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:55:00 EST

People often ask me where I believe the biggest opportunities for Cloud Computing currently are, at first I thought they were asking about the technical particulars like public clouds, platforms etc, but recently I've come to realize it isn't so much the technology as much as where the technology is being adopted that is important. Really what they're asking me is where is the money? I'm here today to tell you, it's in Asia.