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This Week in Cloud, June 23, 2011: Is cloud passé?, GoDaddy cloud service, Lockheed Martin BlackCloud, StackOps review, 1 in 5 employees downloads apps without telling IT. And more…
Cloud News
- Always looking to stay ahead of the next trend, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff declared the cloud to be passé. Speaking at Salesforce.com’s Cloudforce event, Benioff said the hot thing now is the social enterprise, where companies rely on public and private social networks and social applications to run their business. For more on Benioff’s comments, read this CRN piece.
- GoDaddy has launched a virtual private data center offering based on the Cloud.com platform called Data Center on Demand. Rather than a usage-based billing model, GoDaddy has elected to use a recurring fee tier-based billing similar to GoDaddy’s other hosted offerings, according to this Sys-con article.
- NetApp announced enhancements to its OnCommand storage management software, including better integration between the components of its solution and API-level integration with cloud orchestration products. Read this The Register article for more. In related news, Nimsoft added monitoring capabilities for NetApp storage, according to this Computer Technology Review article.
- SearchCloudComputing ran an article identifying which vendors are top-of-mind for their readers when it comes to private cloud, IaaS, Paas, cloud management and cloud storage. Many respondents said that the ‘one-size-fits-all’ commodity nature of cloud products and services makes it tough to integrate with legacy IT environments.
- Microsoft Azure is available on Fujitsu hardware in the company’s Tokyo data center and SearchCloudComputing article.
- CA Technologies announced a partnership with Dimension Data Asia Pacific to drive enterprise cloud adoption throughout Asia Pacific. Dimension Data developed operations-as-a-service offerings based on CA’s virtualization management, service automation, capacity management and service assurance solutions. Read this ChannelWorld article for more. CA Technologies’ AppLogic cloud platform was also named the best cloud platform at the 2011 Cloud Computing World Forum.
Feature article
Does Cloud Equal Savings?
By Paula Klein, Smart Enterprise Exchange
Will your business lower costs by using cloud services? That seems to be a key bottom-line question that CIOs — and their bosses — want to know. Why then is it so hard to get a simple answer? Writer Doug Bartholomew reports in his article, Costing out the Cloud, that, “understanding cloud economics is sort of like going for a swim in a hidden lake” — you never know the depth before you take the plunge.
While that sounded true, I was left wondering why. How can a model designed to ease complexity be so complicated to price out — especially when nearly every department from HR to sales is jumping into the cloud computing pool?
When I investigated further, I found lots of research, analyses and case studies that I will share with you here. Read the full article.
Cloud Views
- Lockheed Martin launched BlackCloud, a private cloud solution for government agencies that integrates Lockheed Martin’s infrastructure with solutions from Cyber Security Alliance partners Cisco, NetApp and VMware to offer secure multi-tenancy. This ZDNet article comments on the news and the ever-blurring line between service providers and service consumers.
- This eWeek review looks at the StackOps, a distribution system which is intended to speed the process of configuring and deploying OpenStack clouds. The reviewer found the OpenStack components solid, but the integration and tools rudimentary. For now, he concludes, putting OpenStack into production would require in-house or outsourced expertise.
- SaaS to account for 75 percent of cloud spending (a $72.9 billion market) by 2015, according to IDC. GigaOm analyst Derrick Harris notes in this blog that IDC’s definition of SaaS also includes PaaS spending, and he questions if the timing will happen even faster than IDC predicts.
- One in five workers is downloading apps without telling IT. This stat is part of research conducted by Avanade, looking at the issue of cloud sprawl. For more detail, read this IT Pro article.
Featured on Cloud Commons
Limitations of Private Cloud for Businesses: Webcast featuring Paul Hoffman, SAP
Descriptions of cloud computing often emphasize the silver lining more than the chances of getting wet. No doubt, cloud computing is a breakthrough technology that will continue to unleash new innovations and bring new efficiencies and advantages to business. On the other hand, enterprises face limitations in using the cloud for high-performance and mission-critical applications such as ERP. Unfortunately, the cloud’s limits are often obscured by all the hype. It’s time to stop looking at the cloud as a panacea. This presentation seeks to clear up some misperceptions and help people make better choices. Watch the webcast.
MSP Corner
- Uptime Software rolled out a new tool to help MSPs and SaaS providers get real-time cost information about public cloud services so they can more effectively price their end services to customers. The service initially works with Amazon Web Services cloud offerings and will soon work with Rackspace as well. Ultimately, Uptime plans to offer instant cost comparisons among the various cloud providers for a host of different applications. For more info, read this Channel Insider article.
- Following the news that India’s MSP1 is seeking to build a global Master MSP business (which would offer VARs and MSPs a range of recurring revenue services and IT solutions), MSP Mentor’s Joe Pannetieri identifies some of the challenges that may prevent this strategy from being successful.
- Hosted VoIP and cloud services provider 8x8 acquired Zerigo, a provider of virtual private services, managed DNS and monitoring tools. Read more in this CRN article.
Upcoming Cloud Events
- Hosting and Cloud Transformation Summit: June 28 – 29, London
- IEEE Cloud 2011: July 4 – 9, Washington DC
