Cloud Computing Articles
Until recently, companies were only warming up to the possibilities of cloud computing. Lately, however, for many enterprise-IT decision makers, cloud is hot, hot, hot. The sea change now underway means many companies are quickly moving from "dipping their toes into cloud computing" to a full-fledged immersion, says Thom VanHorn, vice president of marketing for Application Security, Inc. In 2012, expect to see those same companies dive right in. "The move will only accelerate," he tells DBTA.
Posted December 21, 2011
At HP Discover 2011 in Vienna, HP announced new cloud solutions that advance deployment of private, public and hybrid clouds, enabling enterprises, service providers and governments to capitalize on emerging market opportunities. Fundamentally, the solutions are aimed at helping IT organizations move from a technology-centric view to a service-centric view, and how they can deliver the right services to the right customers with the right parameters, costs, flexibility, and service levels at the right time, Frances Guida, manager of HP Cloud Solutions and Infrastructure, Enterprise Servers, Storage, and Networking, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted December 12, 2011
Unisys Corporation has announced Version 2 of its Unisys Secure Private Cloud Solution, its flagship cloud solution for clients' and cloud service providers' data centers. The solution incorporates improvements to the core software stack, as well as expanded management, security and infrastructure automation capabilities.
Posted December 11, 2011
Half of the respondents to a recent Unisys Corporation online poll said that cloud computing is their top IT investment priority for 2012. The poll, which drew 300 responses, was conducted on the unisys.com web site in September and October 2011. This is the second straight year in which respondents to a Unisys poll named cloud as the chief priority for IT investments in the coming year.
Posted December 11, 2011
IBM and DemandTec have entered into a definitive merger agreement for IBM to acquire DemandTec in an all cash transaction for approximately $440 million. DemandTec delivers cloud-based analytics software that enables businesses to examine different customer buying scenarios, both online and in-store, so they can spot trends and shopper insights to make better price, promotion, and assortment decisions that increase revenue and profitability.
Posted December 08, 2011
A new blog on the SHARE website places the focus on the mainframe as a big data workhorse and the reigning alternative to internal (or external) cloud provision. Pedro Pereira, authoring the blog in SHARE's "President's Corner," makes several astute observations including identifying security and availability as unknowns in a cloud environment.
Posted December 06, 2011
Join Oracle and Unisphere for a live webcast to learn more about common practices that are most vulnerable to fraud and error, and the best practices and technologies used by leading vs. laggard organizations to drive the hidden costs out of operations and enforce process controls. Speakers will include Thomas J. Wilson, president, Unisphere Research; Joseph McKendrick, analyst, Unisphere Research; and Stephanie Maziol, director GRC Applications, Oracle.
Posted December 06, 2011
Three columns ago, I started a series of articles pointing out that tough times are a-comin' for the DBA profession due to major disruptive changes in the wider IT world (see "2012 Might Really Be the End of the World as We Know It"). In previous columns, I have told you about how our lives will change due to major technological changes caused by things such as Solid State Disks (SSD) and massively multicore CPUs.
Posted December 06, 2011
Talend plans to announce version 5 of its unified platform for integration tomorrow. With the new release, Talend says, it becomes the only open source vendor to offer a comprehensive technology portfolio that spans all enterprise integration needs, including data, applications and business processes. With Talend v5, Talend aims to bring a holistic approach to integration, enabling IT organizations to converge traditionally disparate integration efforts and practices through a common set of products, tools and best practices. The Talend Unified Platform provides a common foundation for the products to be used individually or in concert depending on the needs of the organization.
Posted November 29, 2011
Private clouds offer all the advantages of public clouds but with less perceived risk and greater security and accountability. Learn why private cloud adoption has increased more than 60% from last year. Attend this webcast and you'll also receive a complimentary copy of the results of the 2011 IOUG Survey on Cloud Computing, produced by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc., and sponsored by Oracle.
Posted November 09, 2011
Unisys Corporation recently reported third-quarter 2011 net income from continuing operations of $78.6 million, compared with third-quarter 2010 net income from continuing operations of $21.8 million. Revenue in the third quarter of 2011 grew 6% to $1.02 billion compared with $961 million in the year-ago quarter. Foreign currency fluctuations had a positive impact on revenue in the quarter of almost 6 percentage points, the company said. "This was a strong quarter for Unisys," said Unisys chairman and CEO Ed Coleman during a Unisys webcast announcing the quarter results. "We grew our revenue and tripled EPS from continuing operations as we benefited from the foundational work we've been doing to strengthening our competitive and financial profile."
Posted November 08, 2011
UC4, a provider of IT process automation solutions, announced its is shipping a new version of its Application Release Automation (ARA) solution, intended to provide greater visibility into the end-to-end release processes through cross-functional planning, tracking and reporting. The solution is designed to automate the deployment of complex applications from development through production.
Posted October 26, 2011
CA Technologies announced a new solution intended to help companies manage and integrate their database infrastructure with Microsoft's SQL Azure cloud database environment. The new product, CA ERwin Data Modeler for SQL Azure, is designed to enable data managers to make fact-based decisions about which data to move to the cloud and which to keep on premise. This new release of Erwin Data Modeler will also enable data transfer from other databases beyond SQL Server, Donna Burbank, senior director of product marketing for the Data Management business at CA Technologies, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "This solution will enable data transfer from other databases in addition to SQL Server, such as Oracle, Sybase, Teradata, or DB2."
Posted October 26, 2011
At IBM's 2011 Business Analytics Forum, IBM unveiled new software that brings the power of managing and analyzing big data to the workplace. The new offerings span a variety of big data and business analytics technologies across multiple platforms from mobile devices to the data center to IBM's SmartCloud, enabling employees from any department inside an organization to explore unstructured data such as Twitter feeds, Facebook posts, weather data, log files, genomic data and video, as part of their everyday work experience.
Posted October 24, 2011
Oracle has entered into an agreement to acquire RightNow Technologies, Inc., a provider of cloud-based customer service, for $43 per share or approximately $1.5 billion net of RightNow's cash and debt. "Oracle is moving aggressively to offer customers a full range of Cloud Solutions including sales force automation, human resources, talent management, social networking, databases and Java as part of the Oracle Public Cloud," said Thomas Kurian, executive vice president, Oracle Development.
Posted October 24, 2011
At OpenWorld, Oracle's annual week-long conference in San Francisco for customers and partners, Andy Flower, president of the Independent Oracle Users Group, spoke with 5 Minute Briefing about the emerging challenges facing IOUG members, the group's plans for the year ahead, including additional training and certification around Exadata, and how Oracle's engineered systems approach is being received. "The overall need for analytics, the growth of data, and the managing and processing of more and more data - those areas are the central themes for us," Flower noted.
Posted October 19, 2011
Cloud computing has taken the enterprise IT world by force. IT managers and CIOs are evaluating private, public and hybrid cloud infrastructures for running corporate applications and services. Many are doing pilots and evaluating large-scale migrations to the cloud, with the hope of not only saving money but increasing services for users.
Posted October 19, 2011
The Oracle Applications Users Group is continuing its Back to Basics theme, Mark C. Clark, president of the OAUG, told 5 Minute Briefing during Oracle OpenWorld, with education and networking, enabled by smaller regional events and online learning opportunities, in addition to its continued participation in larger events such as OpenWorld and COLLABORATE. Upcoming Connection Point events include the "OAUG Connection Point-EPM/BI/R12.1 Upgrade" which will be held November 15-16, 2011, in Atlanta; and the "OAUG Connection Point-Dubai 2012" will be held March 14-15, 2012, in Dubai, UAE.
Posted October 18, 2011
Savvis, a CenturyLink company, launched Savvis Symphony Database, a cloud-based database platform, at Oracle OpenWorld. Symphony Database provisions everything needed for a complete, secure database solution, with just a few clicks. According to the vendor, client advantages include no software licensing or hardware provisioning, and performance levels can be scaled - both up and down - based on business needs, without any downtime, providing performance guarantees and reduced costs compared to hosted database solutions. Users can select from Oracle Enterprise 11G RAC or Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 for the underlying technology.
Posted October 18, 2011
A new version of LookupPoint for Oracle E-Business Suite was showcased by Spanish Point Technologies at Oracle OpenWorld 2011. This latest version enables information aggregation from on-premise Oracle database systems and applications in the cloud, allowing organizations to create consolidated views of information from cloud application such as Salesforce.com and on-premise enterprise applications such as Oracle E-Business Suite.
Posted October 18, 2011
Red Hat, Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Gluster, Inc., a provider of open source unstructured data storage solutions, for approximately $136 million in cash. With this acquisition, Red Hat says it will improve how enterprise IT manages the explosion of big data, whether on-premise or spanning into the public cloud; and expand into a critical part of enterprise infrastructure, delivering open storage solutions that protect customer investments as they approach the new era of computing.
Posted October 17, 2011
Ingres Corp. has been rebranded as Actian Corporation and unveiled a new strategy to enable companies to develop Action Apps which it describes as lightweight, consumer-style applications that automate business actions triggered by real-time changes in data. "The name change is symbolic of a completely new approach," Greg Wood, Actian CFO, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "Ingres is becoming Actian to take action on big data, powered by VectorWise, the world's fastest data analytics engine."
Posted October 04, 2011
ParAccel, a provider of a high performance analytic database, and MicroStrategy, a provider of business intelligence software, have announced that they have extended their strategic partnership. The alliance builds upon a recent announcement that ParAccel's analytic acceleration technology will be a core component of MicroStrategy's social media analytics applications as well as a high performance option for MicroStrategy Cloud customers. To support these applications, ParAccel has invested dedicated resources, provided comprehensive access to its software, and committed to delivering specific product enhancements that will optimize the integration of ParAccel's analytic engine with MicroStrategy's products and offerings.
Posted October 04, 2011
At SAP TechEd 2011 in Las Vegas, SAP AG announced two new solutions built on SAP HANA, the company's in-memory computing platform. The two new solutions - SAP Smart Meter Analytics software powered by SAP HANA and SAP COPA Accelerator software - were developed by SAP product and design teams working in collaboration with customers. According to SAP the new applications will provide users with real-time insight into "big data," allowing them to leverage large amounts of information for analysis, planning, and forecasting and simulations in a more fluid, natural way versus traditional approaches.
Posted September 28, 2011
Zmanda, a provider of open source and cloud-based backup and disaster recovery solutions, released the latest version of its cloud backup software, incorporating tools that enable users to direct backups either to the cloud or to local storage systems. Zmanda Cloud Backup (ZCB) 4.0 provides users the choice to store backups directly on the cloud; on local disks; or in a hybrid backup configuration, which is an intelligent combination of the two. In addition, ZCB 4.0 offers performance improvements of up to three times the speed for uploads and downloads, the vendor says.
Posted September 20, 2011
Unisys has advice for CIOs seeking to get the most out of their investment in cloud computing: Before plunging in, consider how the proposed cloud solution can best be integrated with the organization's existing mission-critical systems and IT processes. Taking an analytical approach, Unisys says, is the best defense against "cloud in a corner" syndrome, where new cloud solutions become isolated from the rest of the IT environment and don't contribute the business value they should.
Posted September 14, 2011
As data grows, the reflex reaction within many organizations is to buy and install more disk storage. Smart approaches are on the horizon but still only prevalent among a minority of companies. How is it data has grown so far so fast? Technology growth along the lines of Moore's Law (doubling every 18 months) has made petabyte-capable hardware and software a reality. And data growth itself appears to be keeping pace with the hardware and systems. In fact, a petabyte's worth of data is almost commonplace, as shown in a new survey conducted by Unisphere Research among members of the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG). In "The Petabyte Challenge: 2011 IOUG Database Growth Survey," close to 1 out of 10 respondents report that the total amount of online (disk-resident) data they manage today-taking into account all clones, snapshots, replicas and backups-now tops a petabyte.
Posted September 14, 2011
For many organizations, data is not only crossing into the hundreds of terabytes, but into the near-petabyte (PB) and multi-petabyte range. In a new survey sponsored by Oracle and conducted by Unisphere Research among members of the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG), "The Petabyte Challenge: 2011 IOUG Database Growth Survey," close to one out of 10 respondents report that the total amount of online (disk-resident) data they manage today - taking into account all clones, snapshots, replicas and backups - tops a petabyte.
Posted September 07, 2011
IBM announced a new hybrid cloud solution - building on its acquisition of Cast Iron - to help clients reduce the time it takes to connect, manage and secure public and private clouds. With new integration and management capabilities, organizations of all sizes will be able to gain greater visibility, control and automation into their assets and computing environments, regardless of where they reside.
Posted September 06, 2011
At VMworld 2011 yesterday, VMware, Inc. announced a new database provisioning and operations solution designed to deliver a database as a service model for the enterprise. Described as an extension of VMware's Cloud Application Platform strategy, VMware vFabric Data Director aims to give IT the ability to control and manage a growing set of heterogeneous databases through policy-based automation, while streamlining application development via a self-service provisioning model for developers to rapidly access the database services needed for modern applications. Built on VMware vSphere, vFabric Data Director will also extend the benefits of virtualized infrastructures to the database tier, optimizing resource utilization for increased operational efficiency and cost savings.
Posted August 30, 2011
Another IT initiative is in the news. What does it really mean for you? Is it an opportunity? Or is it a distraction? Whatever your perspective, it seems clear that internet computing standards have reached another plateau of standardization and capability, such that vendors see an opportunity to pursue new models of computing.
Posted August 11, 2011
Gluster, a provider of scale-out, open source storage solutions, has introduced the Gluster Connector for OpenStack, which provides scalable and highly-available VM storage functionality for OpenStack. "The Gluster Connector for OpenStack enhances the storage options that are available for OpenStack," John Kreisa, vice president of marketing at Gluster, tells 5 Minute Briefing. By enabling users of the OpenStack framework to now use GlusterFS as the primary storage model, OpenStack users can have both file and object in one common storage model, explains Kreisa.
Posted July 29, 2011
CA Technologies has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Watchmouse B.V. (WatchMouse), a provider of SaaS-based monitoring for cloud, mobile and traditional web applications. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. "As companies extend more applications to their customers through the web and smartphones, the performance of those applications is having a greater impact on revenue, customer loyalty and brand value," says David Dobson, executive vice president, CA Technologies.
Posted July 29, 2011
The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG), the world's largest user knowledgebase for Oracle Applications users, is launching the OAUG Educational Series 2011, a virtual learning series offered to OAUG members from Aug. 8-19, featuring the most popular presentations from the COLLABORATE 11 - OAUG Forum.
Posted July 25, 2011
SafeNet, Inc., a provider of information security solutions, has announced that Sentinel Cloud is now supported by the Dell Boomi AtomSphere cloud integration platform, enabling cloud service providers to easily connect SafeNet's licensing and entitlement management services with their existing on-premise or cloud-based back-office systems.
Posted July 25, 2011
SUSE, an enterprise Linux operating system provider and division of The Attachmate Group, says it is shipping the latest update to its development platform for building, updating and managing application images across x86, public cloud and IBM System z deployments. SUSE Studio Version 1.2 is designed to provide the ability to assemble, build and maintain complete portable application stacks quickly across a range of platforms. SUSE Studio also is intended to bridge x86 microprocessor architectures and mainframes by simplifying the creation, testing, maintenance and deployment of software applications on the mainframe. The toolset supports hundreds of mission-critical Linux images on mainframes, accessible by an interface for building mainframe workloads.
Posted July 25, 2011
TransLattice, which calls itself "the geographically distributed application company" for enterprise, cloud and hybrid environments, has announced the availability of TransLattice Application Platform 2.0. "We allow you to build a large enterprise system processing critical data out of identical components that are spread across geographies, spread across either your physical data center, across cloud computing providers, or both," Mike Lyle, president and CTO of Translattice, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted July 25, 2011
BMC Software and Unisys Corporation have formed a joint initiative to deliver and manage advanced cloud solutions. The two companies are basing their joint solutions on BMC's second-generation Cloud Lifecycle Management (CLM) offering combined with Unisys' cloud advisory, implementation and management services portfolio. The BMC and Unisys initiative will address strategy, planning, design, implementation and operational management of cloud computing solutions to make it possible for customers to realize both immediate and long-term business value through a disciplined approach to cloud computing.
Posted July 15, 2011
A longtime supporter of Linux and open source technologies, IBM has also become a leading proponent of Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) and is a founding member of the recently-formed Open Virtualization Alliance. With 2011 marking IBM's centennial, as well as the 20th anniversary of Linux, Jean Staten Healy, director for Cross-IBM Linux and Open Virtualization, reflects on the ways each has contributed to the other, and the promise offered now by open virtualization to help customers ensure cost efficiency and avoid vendor lock-in in virtualized environments. "As it happened with Linux, the need for virtualization technology will continue to grow, and open virtualization solutions based on KVM will become more and more important to customers looking for choice and cost benefits," Staten Healy observes.
Posted July 13, 2011
A longtime supporter of Linux and open source technologies, IBM has also become a leading proponent of Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) and is a founding member of the recently-formed Open Virtualization Alliance. With 2011 marking IBM's centennial, as well as the 20th anniversary of Linux, Jean Staten Healy, director for Cross-IBM Linux and Open Virtualization, reflects on the ways each has contributed to the other, and the promise offered now by open virtualization to help customers ensure cost efficiency and avoid vendor lock-in in virtualized environments. "As it happened with Linux, the need for virtualization technology will continue to grow, and open virtualization solutions based on KVM will become more and more important to customers looking for choice and cost benefits," Staten Healy observes.
Posted July 13, 2011
CA Technologies announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Interactive TKO, Inc. (ITKO), a provider of service simulation solutions for developing applications in composite and cloud environments, for $330 million in an all-cash transaction. "The addition of ITKO to CA Technologies will extend our ability to deliver a complete set of capabilities to help our customers and partners to increase their adoption and value from cloud-based applications," says David Dobson, executive vice president, Customer Solutions Group, CA Technologies.
Posted July 11, 2011