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Cloud News
- Google is reportedly close to introducing a cloud-storage service called Drive, which will be similar to Dropbox. This PC World article points out that the service offering could potentially turn Google partners into rivals.
- Are telcos poised to disrupt Amazon's enterprise cloud? This Information Week article makes the case that they are, citing speakers from the Cloud Carrier Forum held at the Cloud Connect conference. One point consistently made at the conference: "not only do the carriers already own the networks across which all cloud-based data and content is already trafficked, they have a decades-old and relatively bulletproof track record in delivering secure and highly available services."
- Uptime Software announced a service that can forecast customers' Amazon Web Services bill in the middle of the month, to help eliminate cloud bill surprises. Read more in this Information Week article.
- This Forbes article titled ‘Cloud computing market hot, but how hot? Estimates all over the map' says that the problem in sizing the cloud market is deciding where software ends and cloud begins, and where traditional outsourcing ends and cloud begins. The report cites market sizing data from Market Research Media ($270 billion in 2020), Forrester ($241 billion in 2020), Visiongain ($83 billion by 2016), IDC ($55 billion by 2014) and HP ($143 billion by next year.
- Electric Cloud, a provider of develop and test cloud solutions is offering developers one year of free access to a developer tool that it claims can speed application builds by as much as 70 percent. This offer is available to developers worldwide for the next 60 days, according to this eWeek article.
- Cloudscaling launched its Open Cloud System, an IaaS solution based on the OpenStack open source project. Cloudscaling is also teaming with Cloud Technology Partners to provide infrastructure and consulting services on cloud implementation and migration. Read more in this Data Center Knowledge article.
- UnitedHealth Group plans to launch a cloud platform aimed at healthcare providers and insurers to enable sharing of medical data among industry players, according to this Wall Street Journal article.
Featured Content on Cloud Commons
Gartner Report: The New IT: Drivers, Challenges and Opportunities
This research explores the driving forces that are changing the role of IT in the enterprise, and examines the challenges, along with opportunities and approaches, CIOs can use to define and build a new IT. IT must fuel the successful execution of the enterprise's business strategy, accelerate organizational change and drive innovation business solutions for increased competitive advantage. We believe that the recommendations in this report by Gartner (available compliments of Cloud Commons) will help you better navigate the dynamic and complex IT landscape that has emerged from the advancement in cloud, mobile and social computing.
Feature article
On Cloud and IT Disaster Recovery
By George Hulme, Independent Writer
In his column When Disaster Thunders Through the Cloud, Rob Livingstone raises a point about IT disaster recovery - a point I wonder if many have thought through. That's whether enterprises believe that when they choose a cloud services provider *their* IT disaster recovery efforts come with the package. I don't think most enterprise IT folk take such a simplistic view.
I've not interviewed any IT teams who believe that IT disaster recovery is a core value proposition of any single cloud provider. That is, of course, beyond the investments that provider makes to ensure that they're adequately resilient. It just makes no sense to expect to simply toss that much responsibility over the fence and into the hands of one company. Read the full article.
Cloud Views
- Multiple cloud formations require new security approaches: This eWeek article discusses some new strategies for managing the unique security challenges presented by cloud computing. Solutions from CloudPassage and Lighthouse Security Group are discussed. Another interesting point from the article: Forrester analyst Jonathan Penn predicts that rather than reallocating portions of existing security budgets to cloud computing, organizations will allocate money to security within cloud projects, creating a whole new category of revenue for the security market. Forrester predicts the cloud security market will grow to $1.5 billion by 2015.
- Today, only 13% of companies have substantially implemented cloud across the organization; that figure will increase to 41% according to IBM-sponsored research that will be published shortly in The Economist. The report, which is summarized in this Information Week article, concludes that cloud's potential to drive business innovation is substantial, but largely untapped.
- This eWeek article explores whether 2012 is the year PaaS goes mainstream. The latest report from Gartner, cited in the article, estimates that PaaS revenue in 2011 was $707.4 million, an increase of 38 percent over the previous year.
MSP Corner
- In this Talkin' Cloud article, a guest blog from NetEnrich explores two different types of IT revenue – project vs. recurring – and defines which is better.
- Cloud security provider Savid Technologies is being acquired by Technology Capital Investors, a NY-based investment firm that already owns several other MSP and cloud service providers. Read more in this CRN article.
- Demystifying Opportunities in the Cloud: In this MSPnews article, Peter Sherr with CA Technologies discusses the opportunities for MSPs in 2012, managed services that are being underestimated by the MSP community, how MSPs can better communicate the value of managed services and more.
Upcoming Cloud Events
- Cloud Analytics Summit: February 25, Mountain View, CA
- ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
- Cloud Computing Imperative 2012: March 12 – 14, Dubai, UAE
- Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY
- Cisco Live APJ: March 20 – 23, Melbourne, Australia
- 4th Annual Cloud Computing Summit 2012: March 23. London, UK
- Closer 2012: 2nd International Conference on Cloud: April 18 – 21, Porto, Portugal
View the replay of the Cloud Commons sessions in the CA World 2011 Virtual Show. You'll find a session on buying and selling cloud solutions with the Cloud Commons Marketplace as well as a session on creating cloud appliances with the Cloud Commons Developer Studio. After registering for the show, make your way to the Cloud Choice booth and click on Session Videos.
