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This Week in Cloud, September 1, 2011: Announcements from VMworld, Verizon acquires CloudSwitch, Eucalyptus 3.0, Citrix open-sources CloudStack, 10 steps to cloud control. And more…
Cloud News
- VMware made several cloud-related announcements this week at VMworld, its annual user conference, including partnerships with global cloud service providers, a Web site that aggregates information on cloud service providers, simplified transfer of virtual machines from one data center to another, a cloud-based site recovery manager tool and software to manage databases in virtual environments. For more information, read this InformationWeek article. This highly amusing video produced by Microsoft portrays VMware’s technology as old-school.
- This article in The Register describes VMware’s strategy for partnering with cloud service providers. They claim to have more than 5,600 service providers in 62 countries participating in their service provider program; many of them started out simply hosting server images atop VMware hypervisors, though some are now offering public cloud service offerings with utility-based pricing.
- Verizon has acquired CloudSwitch, on the heels of its acquisition of Terremark and the July launch of Verizon / Terremark cloud services focused on IaaS and managed hosting services. The CloudSwitch software is targeted at helping companies migrate applications and workloads between data centers and the cloud without changing the application or infrastructure layer, according to this Network World article.
- Eucalyptus introduced version 3.0 of its open source private cloud platform, adding enhancements to deliver high-availability. Read more in this ServerWatch article.
- Citrix is open sourcing the code behind the CloudStack cloud management framework that it acquired when it purchased Cloud.com. For more information, read this article in The Register.
- At its Dreamforce event, Salesforce.com announced it is embracing HTML5 to better support tablets and other mobile devices and is opening up its Chatter app to external collaborators and third-party apps. Read more in this Information Week article.
- CA Technologies announced a partnership with Hytrust, a leader in policy management and access control for virtual infrastructure, to help customers improve the security and compliance of virtual and cloud environments, according to this article in Network Computing.
- In the lead-up to Hurricane Irene, Cloud-storage specialist Nirvanix offered customers with data stored in its NJ facility the option to move that data to other locations in its network, free of charge, on either a temporary or full-time basis. Read more in this eWeek article.
- Dell partnered with VMware to introduce its first public cloud-based data storage with IaaS solutions. Read more in this ZDNet article.
Feature article
Dear IT: If you ignore me, I’ll ignore you
By Jeff Abbott, CA Technologies
Consumerization of IT. So what? My spellchecker may not recognize it yet, but it's the latest trend in IT. Actually, it's an observation. It's not about some easy, new, and efficient way to get IT done. In fact, for IT management, it's the unfortunate result of having fallen behind. IT is getting bypassed.
Consumers of IT services have driven the demand for cloud-based services. IT management is scrambling to deal with it. For IT, it's a risk. It's unfamiliar. It's decentralized. It's a threat. Should IT embrace cloud? Internal? External? Public? Private? Hybrid? Should they support mobile devices? Which ones? Personal computers in the home? Which OSs? Tablets? Web-based apps?
The answer is yes, and IT knows it. But the $100,000 question is: "How can IT enable all the methods that IT consumers choose to consume while supporting all the apps that they want to access?" Well... it can't. At least not all at once. But progress is better than perfection. Read the full article.
Cloud Views
- 10 Steps to Cloud Control: this eCommerce Times article identifies 5 responsibilities that IT and business leaders need to be cognizant of and 5 responsibilities that you should hold cloud service providers accountable for, in order to be in control of your cloud implementation.
- This Cloud Commons article discusses the real value of analytics in the cloud.
- In his keynote at VMworld, CEO Paul Maritz predicted the cloud would end the computer desktop era. Read more in this InfoWorld article.
- Exploring the myths of cloud computing: The latest article in this series on Cloud Commons focuses on the myth that cloud computing necessitates a compromise in security and reliability.
MSP Corner
- This MSP Mentor article explores recent research that found that 62% of VARs said SMBs don’t fully understand the benefits of managed services, asking whether the best MSPs actually promote ‘managed services’ to their SMB customers.
- This article in MSP Business Management provides 5 critical questions to ask a potential cloud partner.
Upcoming Cloud Events
- MSPWorld: September 13 – 15, Austin, Texas
- Cloud APAC 2011: September 15, Shanghai, China
- Hosting & Transformation Summit 2011: September 25 – 27, Las Vegas, Nevada
- Virtual Cloud Connect: September 29, virtual
