Nasdaq is launching a cloud-based system hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) designed to let broker-dealers store critical records and meet compliance requirements, it announced this week.
This wouldn't be the first stock market exchange to turn to the cloud -- the New York Stock Exchange launched a community cloud last year -- but Nasdaq's decision will test the limits of using a major public cloud service to host sensitive data. More
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on September 27, 20120 comments
Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff is trying to dispel the notion that his company is a one-trick pony.
At the annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco last week, Benioff told 90,000 attendees and the thousands more who tuned in to his keynote via a Facebook feed that he plans to expand his company's Software as a Service (SaaS) applications well beyond customer relationship management -- the foundation of Salesforce.com's business. More
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on September 24, 20120 comments
Racemi, a company that offers software to move Windows and Linux images from one bare-metal server to another, recently added cloud migrations to its portfolio. The company's new Cloud Path is a software as a service (SaaS) offering that lets administrators move server images to public cloud services.
Admins can use Cloud Path from a Web browser to migrate physical and virtual servers to infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud providers. Atlanta-based Racemi claims migrations will cost on average $800 less than performing manual re-imaging of data. More
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on September 12, 20120 comments
When Microsoft announced the general availability of Windows Server 2012 last week, it described the release as heralding the start of the company's cloud OS era. In a carefully scripted, pre-recorded webcast, Microsoft executives illuminated the cloud characteristics of its new server OS.
Marketing hype aside, the release of Windows Server 2012 culminates a four-year engineering effort to build a common architecture for IT to develop and deploy applications on private, hybrid and public clouds. Microsoft has talked up the combination of Windows Server and System Center as a platform for private and hybrid clouds for some time. More
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on September 10, 20124 comments
Security concerns might be the top inhibitor to using public cloud services, but the horses may have already left the barn.
A global survey of 4,000 executives and IT managers found nearly half (49 percent) already use cloud services to store sensitive or confidential information, and another 33 percent plan to do so over the next two years. Only 19 percent said they don't, according to the survey, conducted by research consultancy Ponemon Institute and commissioned by Thales, a Microsoft ISV that provides security and encryption software and services. More
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on August 29, 20120 comments
Rackspace is now offering free software that lets anyone build private clouds based on the same platform that runs its cloud hosting service.
Alamo, codenamefor the company's Rackspace Private Cloud Software, is now available as a free download. The release, issued this week, marks a key milestone in Rackspace's plan to transition its cloud portfolio from its proprietary infrastructure to OpenStack, the open-source project the company helped launch with NASA two years ago.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on August 16, 20120 comments
Red Hat Software released the Technology Preview of its OpenStack software targeted at service providers and enterprises looking to build infrastructure as a service (IaaS) clouds based on the open source framework.
An early supporter of the two-year-old OpenStack project, Red Hat has kept a low public profile on its commitment to the effort. In its announcement Monday, the company pointed out it was the #3 contributor to the current Essex release of OpenStack.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on August 16, 20120 comments
Microsoft systems integrator partner and IT consulting giant Infosys recently launched its Cloud Ecosystem Hub, which is designed to help enterprises build, deploy and manage hybrid clouds.
The Infosys Cloud Ecosystem Hub combines the global company's consulting and development resources with the assets of the over 30 partners currently in the program, including Microsoft, VMware, Amazon Web Services, CA Technologies, Dell, Hitachi Data Systems, HP and IBM. More
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on August 14, 20120 comments
Steve Wozniak's statement this past weekend that cloud computing could cause "horrible problems" has gone viral, but with all due respect to the visionary Apple co-founder -- take his fears with a grain of salt.
Wozniak gave the off-the-cuff remark after performing in Mike Daisey's theatrical presentation "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs," which exposes the labor conditions at Foxconn, the key manufacturer of Apple products in China. According to PhysOrg.com, a news service covering science and technology, Wozniak revealed his concern over the growing trend of storing data in cloud-based services in a response to an audience question after the performance, which took place at the Woolly Mammoth theater in Washington, D.C. More
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on August 09, 20122 comments
After talking up its plans to offer a public cloud service for well over a year, Hewlett-Packard has made the first two components of its HP Cloud generally available.
As of Aug. 1, customers can purchase the HP's Cloud Object Storage and CDN. The company is backing the service with a 99.95 percent service level agreement. If the service can't meet that SLA, HP will offer customers credits. More
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on August 08, 20120 comments
Another major public cloud could be in the works.
CRN recently reported that VMware plans to build out a public cloud that would compete with Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Google and Rackspace. More
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on August 06, 20120 comments
VMware's acquisition of software defined networking (SDN) pioneer Nicira caps a string of moves that piece together the company's go-forward mission of automating the datacenter and creating next-generation clouds.
Kicking off what could prove to be key milestones for VMware was its July 2 announcement it is acquiring DynamicOps, a cloud automation provider renowned for its support of multiple virtual environments. Then came last week's shocking news that VMware CEO Paul Maritz, who has led the company through stellar growth during his four-year tenure, is stepping aside to become chief strategist of the company's parent EMC. More
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 30, 20120 comments