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This Week in Cloud, October 27, 2011: Oracle buys RightNow. Clouds vs. outsourcing, The threat cloud providers pose to corporate IT? And more …
Cloud News
- Oracle purchased cloud CRM provider RightNow for $1.5 billon. This eWeek article speculates that the primary reason for the purchase was because of RightNow’s multichannel customer service and support capabilities, while this blog in ZDNet explores how this plays into Oracle’s growing rivalry with Salesforce.com. This news was on the heels of Oracle’s purchase of Endeca last week to bolster its big data capabilities (read this Forrester blog for more on that). GigaOm blogger Barb Darrow speculates about who’s next on Oracle’s hit list.
- New research from IDC says cloud adoption will drive strong sales of storage products through 2015, according to this Infostor article. The article also references IDC research predicting that users’ data will double every two years.
- Established outsourcing vendors like HP and IBM are going to face stiff competition from IaaS providers Amazon Web Services, Rackspace and others, according to a report published by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Read more in this InformationWeek article.
Feature article
The cloud is falling, says Gartner – tablets and mobility should top IT’s list instead
By Jay Fry
Just when you thought cloud computing was receiving an unending supply of positive hype, the Gartner Group pulls a fast one on us.
Gartner rolled out their list of strategic technology trends for IT to pay attention to for 2012 at their annual Symposium this week in Orlando. And, instead of Gartner piling on with more publicity for cloud, it seems they pulled a bit of a switcheroo. Cloud computing, which reigned supreme atop their 2011 list, dropped all the way down to No. 10 this time around. Which might cause a cloudwashing vendor or two to worry that the sky (or at least the fluffy white parts of it) is falling.
Read the full article for analysis on why cloud dropped in the ranks and why tablets and mobile apps are becoming more important.
Cloud Views
- Bernard Golden writes about the threat cloud computing providers pose to corporate IT in this Network World article.
- This CIO article, titled ‘What your cloud consultant is trying to tell you’, identifies some euphemisms you may hear from your cloud service provider and explains what they really mean.
- In this Cloud Commons article, Marv Waschke writes about the battle between cloud IaaS management API contenders.
MSP Corner
- This CRN article, the IT Channel’s Future: Part II, describes what white-box resellers, transformative VARs and local, regional and national VARs should do to remain competitive.
- This MSPmentor article explores 4 key questions MSPs should ask themselves every day, as provided by Mike Cooch.
Upcoming Cloud Events
- CloudExpo: November 7 – 10, Santa Clara, California
- CA World: November 13 – 16, Las Vegas, Nevada
- Gartner Data Center Conference: December 5 – 8, Las Vegas, NC
- Up 2011 Cloud Computing Conference: December 5 – 9, Mountain View, CA
