Cloud computing gathers steam with mobile devices |
The remote-storage technology is becoming more commonplace |
Consumers have tapped into cloud computing technology for years: sending messages via Hotmail, uploading photos to Facebook or editing a spreadsheet on Google Docs are just a few examples. Simply put, cloud computing moves data from a single machine, such as a personal computer, to the Internet. The technology frees users from needing to be at a specific PC to access saved information. |
ABI Research forecast that the number of mobile cloud computing users will jump from 42.8 million people in 2008 to more than 998 million in 2014, representing nearly 19 percent of wireless subscribers. |
Cloud computing is designed to keep data safely out of the way of malfunctions, bugs and other IT mishaps. The flip-side lies in handing over private information to a third party. |
Case study: One small step for van Eyk
Investment research firm van Eyk replaced its in-house servers with a public cloud service from Virtual Offis to reduce both cost and risk. Small and mid-size organisations tend to struggle when it comes to getting the right information technology systems. |
Case study: Virtual velocity
Air freight joint venture Australian Air Express uses Salesforce.com software-as-a-service to host and manage its customer data. |
Case study: The race to meet demand
The Victorian Racing Club uses hybrid cloud computing to support its website during the busy cup carnival season. Read more at cio.co.nz |
Five ways that Apps.gov is a trendsetter |
I’m one of many who believe this week’s announcement of Apps.gov–a portal targeted at reducing the cost and effort for public agencies to acquire cloud services–is forcing all of IT to face the economics of cloud computing.
|
Apps.gov, a federal government initiative out of the General Services Administration, demonstrates several concepts that have been the dream of many private enterprise IT departments for some time, but have been successfully executed by very few. Here are the five trends that I think Apps.gov demonstrates, and why you should pay attention: |
| this is a rare opportunity for the federal government to set an example for private industry in no uncertain terms–an example that may go a long way to ensuring the United States sets an example for the rest of the world.Read more at news.cnet.com |
A discussion of how to achieve security when you don’t own the infrastructure. Cloud security through control vs.ownership |
| Traditionally, control of information flows directly from ownership of the underlying platform. In the traditional security model location implies ownership, which in turn implies control. |
| we are rapidly moving from a location-centric security model to a more identity- and data-centric model. The unstoppable forces of ubiquitous connectivity and mobility have broken the location-centric security model and perimeter strategy, and left us searching for a better model for security. |
| The key here is that public cloud computing requires us to exert control without ownership of the infrastructure. We can exert control and secure the information through a combination of encryption, contracts with service-level agreements and by (contractually) imposing minimum security standards on the providers. If those are in place, then there is no inherent reason why a cloud computing environment cannot be made secure and compliant. Read more at www.computerworld.com |
Why you should consider a cloud computing option in your next RFP.
For CIOs, Clouds Are The Fourth Column |
Clouds are transforming IT; that’s not news. But regardless of your cloud computing agenda, clouds are already affecting your IT plans, because they give IT executives a cudgel with which to bludgeon traditional software and infrastructure providers. |
Every IT decision of any real consequence starts with a shortlist of three competing offerings. One of them is usually the incumbent provider — Cisco, IBM, EMC, Microsoft, and so on. Along with this incumbent are a couple of alternate providers. Sometimes these providers are simply “column fodder” designed to rein in the incumbent; but many IT companies have built healthy businesses by being the alternate. |
It’s time for a fourth column: a cloud-based offering. That means every Request for Proposals that a company issues must have a cloud-based option, regardless of whether the company actually plans to adopt clouds. Here’s why. Read more at www.informationweek.com |
Will Google launch government cloud for other governments? Google to Launch Government Cloud |
Google will launch a government-specific version of its popular cloud computing offerings, the company said Tuesday. The Google announcement came just hours after federal government officials unveiled Apps.gov, a Web-based storefront designed to let federal agencies easily acquire cloud computing applications.
|
The Google government cloud will offer a version of the commercial Google Apps suite — which includes hosted e-mail, word processing, collaboration and Web site creation services — that’s tailored to meet specific public-sector requirements. The company plans to launch the new offering in 2010, and it will be available to federal, state and local government agencies. |
Google will “strive to meet the full set of requirements across federal, state and local government,” Glotzbach said. But he added that agencies will need to standardize their requirements on issues like security and privacy to gain the benefits of cloud computing. Read more at www.govtech.com |
From Amazon To IBM, What 12 Cloud Computing Vendors Deliver
|
We compare services factors such as price and service type.
|
Amazon.com’s Elastic Compute Cloud service is the best known example, but the market now bristles with competition. To help companies understand this emerging market, we gathered detailed data from 12 infrastructure-as-a-service providers on prices, services, contracts, platforms supported, and more. A complete report of these findings, including four pages of comparison data on the offerings, can be downloaded free. |
Mike Casullo, CIO of satellite broadband provider WildBlue, turned to the cloud because the company didn’t have enough test slots to work on all the projects coming out of development. “It’s like you’re driving around a parking lot waiting for a space to become available,” he says. |
| WildBlue spent only $9,500 on Skytap for a testing project, instead of more than $500,000, Casullo estimates, if it had to buy, provision, and administer hardware itself.Read more at www.informationweek.com |
Businesses indicate they are still willing to outsource email, even if there are occasional outages.
Businesses Respond To Gmail Outage
|
Enterprises using Gmail don’t expect 100 percent uptime, but they do expect communication and transparency regarding outages.
|
| Google offers its large business customers one-on-one “post-mortem calls” with Google management after an outage, said a Google spokesman. |
| In fact, when they sign their Google contracts, business customers approve service-level agreements that guarantee 99.9% uptime per month, which means Gmail can be down for 43 minutes per month without penalty. If it exceeds that, free days are added to the end of a business customer’s contract. Because of Tuesday’s outage paying customers get three free days of Gmail.
Read more at www.informationweek.com |
Enterprises Aim for the Cloud |
Four out of five enterprises are now giving cloud computing a try. New research has confirmed that at least 80 percent of IT managers are looking at the technology. |
The findings also showed that enterprises tend to employ a wide range of technologies in their cloud computing platforms. Access control was the top concern for people (90 percent), but network security and virtualisation was also named as key technologies. Read more at www.pcworld.com |
Amazon Web Services also announced Wednesday AWS Multi-Factor Authentication, which provides an additional layer of security to the administration of a customer’s account by requiring a second piece of identification.
|
Users must provide a six-digit, rotating code from a device in their physical possession, in addition to their standard AWS account credentials, before they are allowed to make changes to their AWS account settings. It will be offered as an optional feature of Amazon Web Service accounts.
Read more at www.bmighty.com |
|
Smartphones drive cloud based storage
