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This Week in Cloud, October 13, 2011: News from Oracle OpenWorld, Progress & Pushback on US Gov’t Cloud First Policy, 5 cloud security companies to watch, 4 essential cloud security tips. And more…
Cloud News
- As part of its commitment to the White House’s “Cloud First” policy, the Department of Homeland Security has committed to 12 cloud services (9 private and 3 public), according to this Information Week article. Meanwhile, the chairman of a Homeland Security subcommittee, Dan Lungren, expressed concern over cloud’s security risks in this Information Age article.
- This PC Mag article summarizes the announcements made by Oracle at OpenWorld last week, including a new set of applications and database offerings, a new public cloud and hardware for both databases and analytics. This Information Week article describes how Oracle’s public cloud offering will differ from Amazon Web Services, Terremark and Rackspace. In his keynote, Ellison focused on how the Oracle cloud is based on industry standards, by which he meant, primarily Java.
- Google launched a limited preview of Google Cloud SQL, a cloud database for Google App Engine developers looking to build database-driven cloud apps. Read this article in CRN for more. The service is available for free through at least the end of 2011.
- Orbitz is outsourcing big data analytics to the cloud, having selected Kognitio’s Data Warehouse-as-a-Service offering. Read this GigaOm blog for more on Orbitz’s big data strategy.
- The Cloud Standards Customer Council (CSCC) issued a Practical Guide to Cloud Computing, which consists of cloud deployment best practices, resources and expertise from consultants, end users and vendors. CA Technologies is a member of the CSCC.
- Rackspace has spun off the OpenStack open-source cloud computing project to an independent foundation to drive future development efforts, according to this eWeek article.
Feature article
Real-world Applications for the Private Cloud
By Andi Mann
Not surprisingly, since the release of my new book, Visible Ops – Private Cloud, I have been talking with a lot of people about how to deploy private cloud, where to start, what to avoid, etc. So far, the most common question has been, “What type of existing workloads are organizations putting into private cloud environments today - and what are they avoiding?”
So I thought I would jot down some of my answers, specifically related to 'cloud-migrant' services, as opposed to 'cloud-native' services - and without getting too hung up on whether the use cases are 100% cloud or not! Read the full article.
Cloud Views
- This NetworkWorld article identifies 5 cloud security companies to watch: Bromium, CipherCloud, Cloud Passage, High Cloud Security and HyTrust.
- This Network World article provides 4 essential security tips from cloud practitioners: make sure your provider has VP-specific security, figure out a way to lockdown endpoints, push your cloud provider to put security in your SLA, act quickly.
- In this GigaOm blog, Alex Salkever says that we are at the dawn of The Internet of Things, “the much anticipated era when all manner of devices can talk to each other and intermediary services.” Read about why he believes operators must fundamentally change the way they build and run clouds in order for us to realize the full potential of the Internet of Things.
- Responding to Salesforce CEO’s consistent denunciation of private clouds as false clouds, this Information Week editor-in-chief Laurianne McLaughlin explores whether this is wise posturing. She asks: “Does Marc Benioff really want to tell CIOs like FedEx's Rob Carter [a Salesforce.com customer]--who recently shared how he has overhauled his vision for data centers, featuring private cloud--that private cloud is a crazy strategy?”
MSP Corner
- Cloud hosting provider Hosting.com purchased Dallas-based NeoSpire to add deeper security and expand its geographic footprint, according to this CRN article.
Upcoming Cloud Events
- International Cloud Symposium: October 10 – 14, Slough, United Kingdom
- Gartner Symposium & ITxpo: October 16 – 20, Orlando, Florida
- VMworld Europe: October 18 – 20, Copenhagen, Denmark
- CloudExpo: November 7 – 10, Santa Clara, California
- CA World: November 13 – 16, Las Vegas, Nevada
