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This Week in Cloud, January 26, 2012: NIST security guidelines, Joyent raises $85 million, Microsoft & HP collaborate, AT&T’s cloud-based UC, Cloud application security. And more…
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Cloud News
- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a finalized set of guidelines on cloud security. Read more in this InformationWeek article or read the guidelines at NIST.gov.
- Cloud computing provider Joyent recently raised $85 million in funding, according to this TechCrunch article. European group Weather Investment II was the main investor. SmartDataCenter, Joyent’s cloud software suite, is used worldwide by developers and enterprises.
- Piston has released Piston Enterprise OS, an open source operating system for the cloud. This scalable private cloud operating system is built on the OpenStack cloud platform and was built for enterprise customers. Read more at Data Center Knowledge.
- Microsoft recently entered a four-year agreement with HP aiming to make its communications and collaboration applications available via HP's cloud services. This deal includes collaborations in private, public and hybrid cloud solutions. Read more in this CloudTweaks article.
- AT&T launched a cloud-based unified communications system for businesses, which claims to be cost effective and easy to deploy. AT&T‘s cloud-based offering removes the hardware, integration and installation related obstacles involved in a UC project, while curbing expenditure. Read more about AT&T‘s new cloud offering in this eWeek article.
- Westfield Capital recently invested $2 million worth of venture funding in cloud storage vendor Symform, joining the ranks of investors like OVP Venture Partners and Longworth Venture Partners who have all contributed to the round of funding worth $7.5 million, according to this GigaOM article. Symform is providing a peer-to-peer storage network that enables users to share their own unused capacity with others in exchange of free or flat-fee cloud storage.
- Quantum computing and cryptography may soon be heading to the cloud, according to this article on BBC. Quantum computing can perform complex computations at “breathtaking speeds” and will utilize the cloud to carry out the heavy lifting of the computations, while quantum cryptography will ensure that the data is encrypted and secure while in the cloud.
Featured Content on Cloud Commons
Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must
Enterprises moving business-critical information and processes into the cloud must ensure that their cloud providers meet their security policies. We believe that the recommendations in this report by Gartner (available compliments of Cloud Commons ecosystem) will help secure your cloud by explaining the various models of security testing that a company can use to test their provider's code for vulnerabilities.
Feature article
The transition to cloud – an opportunity to get application security right
By George Hulme, Independent Writer
It’s generally been true that entirely avoidable IT attacks cause most data breaches in traditional infrastructure. And it’ll most likely be true that many successful attack techniques will be entirely avoidable in cloud. That’s if enterprises, software makers, and cloud service providers take their separate roles in mitigating vulnerabilities seriously. Read the full article.
Cloud Views
- If something goes wrong in the cloud, who is responsible? This article on law.com discusses the factors that legal representatives of corporations and cloud service providers need to focus on including limitation of liability, workarounds for that limitation, contract claim details, remedies, insurance and indemnification.
- Is there a better way for companies to sort and collect consumer data? In this article on Cloud Commons, Partha Dutta examines the way that companies like Amazon, Facebook, and YouTube are collecting your data, details the issues with the way data is collected, and proposes a new way that companies could collect data using the cloud.
- Capgemini CTO’s take on the cloud market: In this blog on GigaOM, Barb Darrow recaps a recent discussion with Joe Coyle. Find out why he thinks IBM is cloudier than you think, Microsoft Azure has a tough row to hoe, Amazon is Amazon, OpenStack as big-time cloud disruptor, and CIOs are getting over cloud phobia.
MSP Corner
- Level Platforms recently added NOC (network operations center) and Help Desk services to its Managed Workplace platform for MSPs, according to this MSPmentor article. The offering is targeting MSPs in the small business IT services market and is another sign of the growing trend in MSPs merging managed services software, NOC services, and help desk services.
- Polycom Inc., a unified communications provider, recently launched its RealPresence Cloud offering which enables service providers to bring cloud-based, video as a service (VaaS) solutions to market. Read more about Polycom's video collaboration based cloud strategy and the RealPresence cloud platform in this eWeek article.
Upcoming Cloud Events
- Cloud Expo Europe: January 25 – 26, London, UK
- MSPWorld: February 1 – 3, Miami, FL
- Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
- Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
