Register now!
Get weekly insight from the experts at Cloud Commons.
Special Offer
Subscribe now for a chance to win a $500 Apple gift certificate*†
This Week in Cloud, January 13, 2011: Eucalyptus and Red Hat sitting in a tree, Netflix blogs on the ups and downs of its cloud implementation, the key to succeeding with SaaS, using EC2 to crack WiFi passwords. And More…
This Week in Cloud: Eucalyptus & Red Hat sitting in a tree, Netflix blogs on cloud ups & downs, the key to succeeding with SaaS
Feature Article
The Soft Cloud, the Iron Cloud, the False Cloud
By Robin Bloor, Bloor Research
History suggests that the term “cloud computing” was coined by NetCentric in 1999. Once “the cloud” was coined, different species of cloud were invented, described and analyzed, and then new varieties appeared as one species of cloud cross bred with another. So now they may well be as many varieties of computing clouds as there are meteorological clouds. Let me deconstruct all of this. There are just three separate trends in progress, which were called by other names before they were magically touched by the word “cloud.” I now refer to them as: the soft cloud, the iron cloud, and the false cloud. Read the full article.
Cloud News
- Eucalyptus is partnering with Red Hat to bundle Deltacloud, its cloud platform initiative, with the more mature Eucalyptus platform, according to this IT Knowledge Exchange article. The Deltacloud tools will function as a cloud management layer—enabling users to manage public cloud services and internal private cloud resources at the same time.
- The Department of Treasury will leverage Amazon EC2 to host several web sites, making it the first cabinet-level federal agency to leverage AWS, according to this Information Week article.
- Network intrusion prevention specialist Sourcefire will acquire cloud-based anti-malware company Immunet for $21 million according to this Network Computing article.
- GigaOm published a list of 8 Cloud Companies to Watch in 2011. On the list: Calxeda, Cisco, CouchOne, Joyent, OpenStack, Red Hat, Salesforce.com and Twitter.
- Oracle is kicking off a global cloud computing roadshow that will hit 80 cities around the world, according to this PC World article. Meanwhile, Bob Evans from Information Week speculates that the 25-year alliance between HP and Oracle has dissolved, citing the removal of a page on HP’s website as evidence of a fracture.
- NYU is offering a graduate-level course titled Managing Cloud Computing: Principles, Economics, Technology & Management Practices. This article on Cloud Commons offers more detail.
Cloud Views
- Technology managers at Netflix, which last year migrated its customer-facing applications to AWS, have published a candid blog about their experiences. Topics covered include why they chose Amazon, why they use open source software, and 5 lessons learned using AWS. This Computerworld article summarizes key takeaways.
- A new report from Ovum warns CIOs that moving to a SaaS model without a clear business case can result in an application that is more expensive and slower than an on-premise software approach. The report acknowledges that SaaS can deliver cost savings and performance improvements, but only if the project is afforded the same amount of consideration as an in-house implementation would be given. This eWeek article provides more detail.
- A German security researcher has used Amazon’s EC2 service to crack weak passwords used to protect Wi-Fi networks in 6 minutes. Thomas Roth plans to share his findings at the Black Hat conference in Washington, D.C. next week, according to this CRN article.
- In this Tech Republic blog, Colin Smith ponders how cloud will change the IT role in 2011 and beyond.
- This Economist article sizes the SaaS ($11.7 billion), PaaS ($311 million) and IaaS markets ($1 billion) in 2010—citing data from Forrester Research and estimates from blogger Guy Rosen about the size of Amazon’s AWS business.
Upcoming Cloud Events
- Global Services Conference 2011: Enabling Business Transformation through Global Sourcing, January 27, NYC
- CloudGov: February 17, Washington DC
- ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: Extreme Convergence: Fusing IT and Business in a Leaner, Global, Virtualized World, March 6 – 8, Palm Springs, California
- Cloud Connect: March 7 – 10, Santa Clara, California
