CA Picks Up Watchmouse

Looking to bolster its IT monitoring portfolio, CA Technologies has agreed to acquire Web site monitoring company Watchmouse. Terms were not disclosed.

The remote user monitoring service is a subscription-based offering that monitors the performance and availability of Web sites, services and transaction-level applications from 62 monitoring stations worldwide in over 40 countries. More

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on August 03, 20110 comments


Dell Delivers OpenStack Cloud Solution

Dell is delivering an Infrastructure as a Service cloud solution based on the open source OpenStack platform.

Called the Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution, it consists of a reference architecture that outlines how to integrate the OpenStack operating system, Dell PowerEdge C servers and a component to install the software on bare metal systems called Crowbar. Also available are services from Dell and Rackspace Cloud Builders. More

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 27, 20110 comments


Hewlett-Packard Jumps on OpenStack Bandwagon

Count Hewlett-Packard as the latest member company to join the OpenStack project, the open source cloud effort formed a year ago.

As the largest IT vendor in terms of revenues, it can be argued that HP's presence is a major boost for OpenStack. Or perhaps the vendor realized that some of its key rivals -- Cisco and Dell -- were already major contributors to an effort that appears to be gaining momentum. More

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 27, 20110 comments


Capgemini Bets on Microsoft's Azure

Capgemini, the global consulting and systems integration giant, is putting a major emphasis on Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud platform.

The company last week said it has agreed to align its resources around Windows Azure, as well as marketing and delivering services around the platform. The two companies have a longstanding partnership, and this agreement is an extension of that. Capgemini's Microsoft-related business last year was $1.7 billion. More

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 26, 20110 comments


OpenStack Official Talks Up Diablo

The OpenStack consortium is readying the next release of its open-source cloud operating platform with a target date of late September.

OpenStack, a project launched a year ago this week by Rackspace Hosting and NASA, now is 80 member companies strong. The last release of the OpenStack operating system, Cactus, came out in April. The group is now moving to a six-month release cycle, said Jonathan Bryce, chairman of the OpenStack Project Policy Board and a founder of the Rackspace Cloud. More

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 21, 20110 comments


Dell To Acquire Force10 Networks

Looking to add networking punch to its datacenter and cloud solutions portfolio, Dell on Wednesday said it has agreed to acquire Force10 Networks.

Terms of the deal, set to close later this summer, were not disclosed, though the San Jose, Calif.-based company posted $200 million in revenues over the past 12 months. More

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 20, 20110 comments


IBM's Cloud Business Rises

It was a stellar quarter for IBM as the company's reported second quarter revenues of $26.7 billion were up 12 percent, and net income of $3.7 billion was up 8 percent. That's certainly not a bad way to cap off a quarter in which the company turned 100 years old.

Buoyed by strong services, software and hardware revenues, Big Blue also talked up its cloud business, which is on track to double this year. Within its Integrated Technology Services business, cloud-based services revenue grew 200 percent. Since IBM did not break out those revenues, it's hard to get too excited about that figure for the moment. More

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 20, 20110 comments


Cloud Bubble Ready To Pop?

This week marked the debut of the first cloud-focused ETF, a fund comprising of cloud companies.

The release of the First Trust ISE Cloud Computing Index Fund (Ticker: SKYY) begged the question: Are cloud stocks going the way of dotcom holdings more than a decade ago? More

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 08, 20110 comments


CloudShare Gains $10 Million in Funding

CloudShare this week said it has bagged $10 million in new funding led by Globespan Capital Partners, joined by existing backers Sequoia Capital, Charles River Ventures and Gemini Israel Funds.

The company has raised a total of $26 million in three rounds since its founding in 2005. CloudShare said it will use the funding to expand its sales and market presence. More

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 07, 20110 comments


BPOS Customers Can't Upgrade to Office 365 Yet

One week after the official launch of Office 365, partners and customers of its predecessor are realizing that they will have to wait three or four months before they can upgrade.

That's the estimate in a document (DOC) posted to the Microsoft Office 365 Transition Center, which states that transition availability for existing Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) customers will be available "roughly" four months after the Office 365 launch. More

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 05, 20113 comments


LiveOffice Offers Archiving for Office 365

Microsoft's Office 365 provides users with 25 GB of capacity per mailbox but what if you need advanced archiving capabilities?

One option is from LiveOffice, which said it is offering advanced archiving, e-discovery and compliance services for users of Office 365. The LiveOffice service automatically synchronizes Exchange and SharePoint data, enabling end users to access messages and data in the archive from Outlook. Support for content from Lync will come in the fourth quarter. More

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 05, 20110 comments


Dimension Data Acquires OpSource

Dimension Data last week said it has acquired OpSource, a provider of cloud hosting and managed services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Based in Johannesburg, Dimension Data is a huge $4.7 billion global systems integrator and reseller. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTT Holdings. Santa Clara-based OpSource provides cloud hosting and management services to more than 600 enterprises, service providers and SaaS-based ISVs. More

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 05, 20110 comments