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Cloud Computing

Public Cloud, Private Cloud, and Hybrid Cloud approaches as well as services such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) are being embraced for cost efficiency, scalability, and consolidation. Hypervisor technologies, Open Source versus Proprietary Hypervisor technologies, Security, Open Standards, Interoperability, High Availability, and Backup & Recovery are among the issues that are critical to consider when evaluating a move to the cloud.



Cloud Computing Articles

At the recent Novell BrainShare EMEA event in Amsterdam, for which IBM was a sponsor, Jay Ennesser, vice president, Global Alliance Solutions, IBM, was interviewed about the emerging role of Linux in the cloud, and the strong IBM and Novell partnership which spans more than 10 years. Commenting on the role of Linux in the cloud, Ennesser noted it is already in utilities, water management systems, in how the infrastructure of people's homes is managed, and in cars. It is in everything people do every day and becoming more and more mainstream. "Cloud is just another natural extension of what has already gone on with Linux today. We will just provide you another opportunity from a cost of ownership point of view to deploy the services that are being deployed."

Posted June 23, 2010

Openness was the theme of the OpenForum Europe Summit 2010 earlier this month in Brussels. Speakers included Neelie Kroes, European Commission vice president for the Digital Agenda, and Dr. Michael Karasick, vice president of technical and business strategy, IBM Software Group, as well as Don Deutsch, vice president, Standards Strategy and Architecture, Oracle, Prof. Yochai Benkler of Harvard University, and Prof. Nigel Shadbolt of University of Southampton.

Posted June 23, 2010

VMware and Novell have expanded their strategic partnership with an original equipment manufacturer agreement through which VMware will distribute and support the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server operating system. Under the agreement, VMware also intends to standardize its virtual appliance-based product offerings on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

Posted June 23, 2010

Quest Software, Inc. plans to launch a beta program tomorrow for Toad for Cloud Databases, a new data access and management tool for non-relational data stored in cloud databases, also known as NoSQL databases. Toad for Cloud Databases is intended to help users unlock data stored in the cloud by using the familiar SQL language or Toad's popular visual query and data access capabilities. Users can query and report on non-relational data, migrate data in both cloud and relational databases from one to the other, and create queries that combine the two.

Posted June 22, 2010

According to a new Unisys online poll of 124 IT professionals, 62% said that their companies had plans to migrate to Windows 7 - with 36% likely moving within 6 to 12 months. In Unisys' view, IT executives need to look beyond the migration itself to consider the new management challenges and benefits Windows 7 affords them. For example, they must capitalize on the the innovative support automation features of Windows 7 not only to save money, but also to help information workers resolve service events quickly and remain productive through anywhere, anytime access to the desktop environment.

Posted June 09, 2010

In only a few years' time, the world of data management has been altered dramatically, and this is a change that is still running its course. No longer are databases run in back rooms by administrators worrying about rows and columns. Now, actionable information is sought by decision makers at all levels of the enterprise, and the custodians of this data need to work closely with the business.That's because, in the wake of the recent financial crisis and economic downturn, there's a push from both high-level corporate management and regulators to achieve greater understanding and greater transparency across the enterprise, Jeanne Harris, executive research fellow and a senior executive at the Accenture Institute for High Performance, and co-author, along with Tom Davenport, of Competing on Analytics and Analytics at Work, tells DBTA. "In many ways, I think the ultimate result of the financial crisis is that executives realized they cannot delegate analytics to subordinates; they can't view it as technology or math that doesn't really affect them."

Posted June 07, 2010

The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected the InterSystems CACHÉ high-performance object database to support the scientific processing of the Gaia mission. This mission's aim is to map the Milky Way with precision. The Gaia mission will launch in mid-2012 to conduct a census of all the billion stars in our galaxy. Gaia will observe all celestial objects down to their lowest magnitude. Each object will be observed an average of 70 times during a 5-year period, charting their positions, distances, movements and changes in brightness. Gaia is expected to discover hundreds of thousands of new objects, such as extra-solar planets and failed stars known as brown dwarfs. Within our own solar system, Gaia will be able to identify hundreds of thousands of asteroids.

Posted June 01, 2010

At CA World, CA Technologies launched three new and two enhanced products in its virtualization management portfolio. The three new products are designed to deliver robust virtualization management capabilities for virtualization-focused administrators. The company also announced enhancements to two existing products to offer more advanced capabilities for integrating specialized virtualization management into the end-to-end management of hybrid physical and virtual systems, networks, storage and applications.

Posted June 01, 2010

IBM has opened a Center of Innovation for Linux and Open Standards in the capital city of the Republic of Kazakhstan, with the goal of driving the development and adoption of open standards and open source technologies among the businesses and government organizations of Kazakhstan. Opened under a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding, signed by IBM and the Kazakhstan Ministry of Information & Communications, the agreement covers several areas of cooperation. The IBM Center of Innovation for Linux and Open Standards will help local software developers increase their Linux and open standards expertise and better connect them to the worldwide Linux community. As part of this process, IBM will develop new ways to apply information technologies to improve business life in Kazakhstan.

Posted May 26, 2010

IBM announced on Monday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Sterling Commerce from AT&T for approximately $1.4 billion in cash. The acquisition of the Dublin, Ohio-based company will expand IBM's ability to help organizations create more intelligent and dynamic business networks by simplifying and automating the way they connect and communicate with customers, partners and suppliers both on-premise or through cloud computing delivery models. IBM and AT&T expect the transaction to close in the second half of 2010, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Posted May 25, 2010

Microsoft last week announced that volume licensing downloads for SQL Server 2008 R2 are available in all languages, including the public availability of PowerPivot functionality. Customers can now download the trial version of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 and the web downloads of PowerPivot for Excel and SharePoint.

Posted May 18, 2010

ParaScale, Inc. has introduced a new version of its cloud storage platform with advanced features for data security, protection and accessibility. Release 2.5 of ParaScale Cloud Storage software also includes features to efficiently address 'big data' requirements by enabling data services and application integration directly onto storage nodes.

Posted May 18, 2010

IBM announced that it has acquired Cast Iron Systems to broaden the delivery of cloud computing services for clients. Cast Iron Systems, a privately held company founded in 2001 and based in Mountain View, Calif., provides cloud integration software, appliances and services. Cast Iron Systems' clients include Allianz, NEC, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Dow Jones, Schumacher Group, ShoreTel, Sports Authority, Time Warner, and Westmont University.

Posted May 17, 2010

IBM Offers Linux Webcasts On-Demand Did you miss a webcast covering important information about technologies you need to learn more about? IBM offers replays on-demand of webcasts presented by IBM experts and partners.For a replay of "Discover the Benefits of Running Your WebSphere Workloads on Linux and System z" go here.For a replay of "Cloud Computing Made Easy with IBM and Linux," go here. For a replay on "System z and Linux: The Winning Combination," go here. For a replay on "Leveraging Linux with the IBM Client for Smart Work," go here.For a replay on "IBM Smart Business Development and Test with Linux on the Cloud," go here.

Posted May 12, 2010

Cloud computing offers dynamically scalable IT resources, on-demand self-service, network access, rapid up and down scalability, resource pooling, flexibility, and pay per use.

Posted May 12, 2010

To broaden the delivery of cloud computing services for clients, IBM has acquired Cast Iron Systems, a privately held company, founded in 2001, that provides cloud integration software, appliances and services. Cast Iron Systems' clients include Allianz, NEC, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Dow Jones, Schumacher Group, ShoreTel, Sports Authority, Time Warner, and Westmont University. The acquisition will expand IBM's process and integration software portfolio, which grew more than 20% in the first quarter of 2010.

Posted May 12, 2010

SpringSource, a division of VMware, Inc., and a vendor in Java application infrastructure and management, has announced that VMware has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire GemStone Systems, Inc., a privately held provider of enterprise data management solutions based in Beaverton, Ore.

Posted May 11, 2010

While enterprise users are ready to move a broad set of workloads to the cloud, they remain wary of moving their most critical business application workloads there, according to the results of a recent Unisys poll.

Posted May 10, 2010

In today's economic climate, application modernization has an even greater significance and return on investment potential for global organizations than has been seen over the past few decades. While most business drivers for application modernization are well known and change little from year to year, some newer drivers are emerging, and certain older drivers are growing in urgency - all increasing the impetus for change.

Posted May 10, 2010

IBM announced yesterday that it has acquired Cast Iron Systems to broaden the delivery of cloud computing services for clients. Cast Iron Systems, a privately held company founded in 2001 and based in Mountain View, Calif., provides cloud integration software, appliances and services. Cast Iron Systems' clients include Allianz, NEC, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Dow Jones, Schumacher Group, ShoreTel, Sports Authority, Time Warner, and Westmont University.

Posted May 04, 2010

IBM is delivering a portfolio of software appliances across IBM brands, all powered by SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Leveraging the SUSE Appliance Program from Novell, the initiative enables IBM to provide "plug-and-play" appliances that lower the cost and complexity of deploying applications for small and medium-sized businesses and help independent software vendors simplify the packaging of their solutions for multiple environments, enabling them to test, deploy and scale offerings.

Posted May 03, 2010

5 Minute Briefing: Information Management visited the COLLABORATE 10 conference for Oracle users last week in Las Vegas and had an opportunity to meet with new Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) president, David Ferguson. The conference, held at the Mandalay Bay convention center in Las Vegas, was jointly sponsored by the OAUG, the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) and Quest International Users Group. Attendance was estimated at over 5,000 with excellent attendance at the sessions and brisk exhibit floor activity during the breaks.

Posted April 27, 2010

Layer 7 Technologies, a provider of Web management solutions, announced it is shipping a new line of management software to enhance the management and security of cloud environments. Layer 7's new CloudSpan family of products include three products intended to help address critical connectivity, security and delivery needs of both consumers and providers of cloud services.

Posted April 19, 2010

SpringSource, a division of VMware, Inc. and provider of Java application management solutions, announced the acquisition by VMware of Rabbit Technologies, Ltd., an open source software company based in the United Kingdom. SpringSource will add the RabbitMQ open messaging system into its suite of technologies that are designed to reduce the complexity associated with development, deployment and management of enterprise applications. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Posted April 19, 2010

Did you miss a webcast covering important information about technologies you need to learn more about? IBM offers replays on-demand of webcasts presented by IBM experts and partners.

Posted April 14, 2010

Greenplum Software, a data infrastructure company, has introduced what it calls the industry's first commercially available "Enterprise Data Cloud" platform. Called Greenplum Chorus, the solution offers self-service provisioning, data collaboration and data services features to complement traditional enterprise data warehouses. "Greenplum Chorus is a distributed software platform that is run on premises within an enterprise — potentially spanning multiple data centers and encompassing tens or hundreds of warehouses and marts," Ben Werther, director of product management for Greenplum, tells 5 Minute Briefing. The product is available under subscription or perpetual licensing models, Werther adds.

Posted April 13, 2010

The Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG), has announced the availability of a virtual educational program that will run concurrently with the annual Oracle users event COLLABORATE. Presented jointly by the IOUG, as well as the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) and Quest International Users Group (Quest), the COLLABORATE 10 conference will take place April 18-22 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Convention Center in Las Vegas.

Posted April 13, 2010

It's hard enough to lock down sensitive data when you know exactly which server the database is running on, but what will you do when you deploy virtualization and these systems are constantly moving? And making sure your own database administrators (DBAs) and system administrators aren't copying or viewing confidential records is already a challenge - how are you going to know when your cloud computing vendor's staff members are not using their privileges inappropriately? These are just two of the obstacles that any enterprise must overcome in order to deploy a secure database platform in a virtual environment, or in the cloud. In some cases, these concerns have been preventing organizations from moving to virtualization or cloud computing.

Posted April 07, 2010

COLLABORATE 10 will at long last bring together Sun and Oracle users for the first time under one roof. Ian Abramson, president of the Independent Oracle Users Group, talks with DBTA about what the group is planning for the April conference in Las Vegas, and how the integration of customers and technology is being handled by Oracle and the IOUG.

Posted April 07, 2010

SOA Software, an SOA and cloud services governance provider, is delivering a toolset that includes advanced policy and security federation for SOA (service-oriented architecture) and cloud services. The new product, Policy Manager 6.0, is intended to enable the right level of control over distributed, heterogeneous systems and platforms, the vendor says.

Posted April 05, 2010

Terracotta, a provider of Java application scalability solutions, and EnterpriseDB, which provides enterprise-class products and services based on the PostgreSQL open source database, announced they are teaming up to jointly address the complex technical challenges of scaling the data layer in private clouds.

Posted April 05, 2010

Did you miss a webcast covering important information about technologies you need to learn more about? Two new webcast replays have just been added to the IBM's on-demand offering.

Posted March 31, 2010

The world of work is evolving faster and faster. Whether you're a business or IT professional, Impact 2010 is the premier conference designed around you.

Posted March 31, 2010

Providing evidence of increasing migration to the cloud for collaboration capabilities, IBM has announced that more than 200 partners are planning to sell to their customers LotusLive cloud services. New integrated solutions from partners are bringing LotusLive to new global customers in the insurance, banking and other industries around the world. The news comes just 2 months after the introduction of the LotusLive partner program.

Posted March 31, 2010

The opportunity for progress for the planet is clear, emphasized Dr. Bob Sutor, vice president, Open Source and Linux, IBM Software Group, and Jean Staten Healy, head of IBM's Linux strategy, during a presentation they made at Novell BrainShare 2010 last week titled "Linux as a Catalyst for a Smarter Planet." With the world becoming increasingly instrumented and interconnected, virtually all things, processes, and ways of working are becoming intelligent. Only Linux is able to provide the operating system from embedded devices gathering the data to supercomputers analyzing the data. Linux can support dynamic infrastructures that can help drive down costs, and are intelligent and secure.

Posted March 31, 2010

Red Hat, Inc. has announced the availability of the fifth update to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5. Adding features designed to operate across physical, virtual and cloud deployments, the update offers enhanced virtualization and interoperability capabilities, combined with support for important new hardware platforms including the POWER7 and Nehalem-EX processors while retaining support for existing processor platforms (mainframe, Itanium, Nehalem-EP, etc.).

Posted March 31, 2010

Did you miss a webcast covering important information about technologies you need to learn more about? Two new webcast replays have just been added to the IBM's on-demand offering.

Posted March 31, 2010

Providing evidence of increasing migration to the cloud for collaboration capabilities, IBM has announced that more than 200 partners are planning to sell to their customers LotusLive cloud services. New integrated solutions from partners are bringing LotusLive to new global customers in the insurance, banking and other industries around the world. The news comes just 2 months after the introduction of the LotusLive partner program.

Posted March 31, 2010

The opportunity for progress for the planet is clear, emphasized Dr. Bob Sutor, vice president, Open Source and Linux, IBM Software Group, and Jean Staten Healy, head of IBM's Linux strategy, during a presentation they made at Novell BrainShare 2010 last week titled "Linux as a Catalyst for a Smarter Planet." With the world becoming increasingly instrumented and interconnected, virtually all things, processes, and ways of working are becoming intelligent. Only Linux is able to provide the operating system from embedded devices gathering the data to supercomputers analyzing the data. Linux can support dynamic infrastructures that can help drive down costs, and are intelligent and secure.

Posted March 31, 2010

As businesses worldwide embrace netbooks as a way to bridge the gap between low price and high performance in information technology, IBM, Canonical, and Simmtronics have announced that Simmtronics netbook, the Simmbook, is available to emerging markets at a low price of $190. With initial availability in emerging markets such as South Africa, the Simmbook is preloaded with IBM Client for Smart Work, which includes IBM Lotus Symphony, access to IBM LotusLive cloud collaboration services, and choice of adding other IBM Lotus collaboration software like Lotus Notes and Lotus Sametime.

Posted March 31, 2010

Lieberman Software Corporation, a provider of privileged identity management and security management solutions, has announced enhancements to its account password management solution, Enterprise Random Password Manager (ERPM). ERPM now delivers fine-grained management features to protect every asset in the cloud infrastructure - including physical and virtual computers and network appliances, hypervisors, databases, middleware, and line-of-business applications. With this version of ERPM, cloud service providers can assure both customers and IT auditors that privileged access to sensitive data is continuously monitored and secured.

Posted March 30, 2010

SpringSource, a division of VMware, Inc. and vendor in Java application infrastructure and management, has launched a platform based on the Apache Tomcat server, intended to provide higher levels of productivity, operational control and deployment flexibility for customers building and deploying Spring applications. The new product, SpringSource tc Server Spring Edition, is intended to provide developers and operators with faster development and insight into the performance and health of their Spring applications. Additionally, the lightweight footprint of tc Server helps ensure greater resource utilization across virtual and cloud environments.

Posted March 22, 2010

The world of world of work is evolving faster and faster. Whether you're a business or IT professional, Impact 2010 is the premier conference designed around you.

Posted March 18, 2010

Yesterday at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco, Dr. Bob Sutor, vice president, Open Source and Linux, IBM Software Group, presented a keynote address that examined key issues that users should think about when considering adoption of open source solutions. The talk was titled "Asking the Hard Questions About Open Source Software."

Posted March 18, 2010

IBM has announced plans to go online with its commercial cloud service for software development and testing, allowing enterprise and government clients to test and develop on an IBM Cloud.

Posted March 18, 2010

Yesterday at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco, Dr. Bob Sutor, vice president, Open Source and Linux, IBM Software Group, presented a keynote address that examined key issues that users should think about when considering adoption of open source solutions.

Posted March 18, 2010

IBM has announced plans to go online with its commercial cloud service for software development and testing, allowing enterprise and government clients to test and develop on an IBM Cloud.

Posted March 18, 2010

Virtual Bridges, developer of the VERDE suite for desktop virtualization, and ZSL, an ISV and global software solutions and services provider, have formed a worldwide reseller agreement, through which the Virtual Bridges VERDE suite will be an integral component of ZSL's PowerCube DaaS (Desktop as a Service) packaged service offering.

Posted March 18, 2010

Data Strategies International, a provider of data migration services, says it has teamed up with Micro Focus, a provider of application modernization tools, to better enable moving data from mainframe-based physical tape libraries to cloud-based environments.

Posted March 16, 2010

IBM today announced plans to go online with its commercial cloud service for software development and testing. IBM, which already delivers a test and development cloud, is now allowing enterprise and government clients to test and develop on an IBM Cloud. According to IBM, the average enterprise devotes up to 50% of its entire technology infrastructure to development and test, but typically up to 90% of it remains idle. IBM's approach to cloud is intended to complement clients' current data centers and traditional development efforts.

Posted March 16, 2010

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