Techworld.com virtualisation

CIOs bemoan lock-in and the 'false flexibility' of the cloud

James Niccolai) — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 23:33:00 GMT

Despite the promise of portability from service providers, the reality of the cloud for big customers is a similar type of lock-in as they experience with on-premise apps vendors such as Oracle and SAP, two CIOs said Tuesday.

CERN modernizes IT infrastructure with OpenStack and Puppet

Mikael Ricknäs) — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:55:00 GMT

CERN is making the infrastructure that handles the data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) more flexible by upgrading it with OpenStack for virtualization and Puppet for configuration management.

Forrester: PaaS makes developers happy

Brandon Butler) — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:03:00 GMT

Although the platform as a service (PaaS) market is smaller than both IaaS and SaaS segments of the cloud computing industry, research firm Forrester says this technology could be one of the most important cloud-based services for businesses moving forward.

GE thinks it's time to put industrial data in the cloud

Stephen Lawson) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:53:00 GMT

Internet tools are just starting to be applied to industrial tasks such as maintaining equipment and optimizing operations, but the wealth of data being produced by industrial systems could make this a major focus of development in the coming years.

Microsoft Dynamics ERP software now available on the Azure cloud

noreply@idg.co.uk (Chris Kanaracus) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:14:00 GMT

Microsoft is upping the stakes in the growing market for cloud-based ERP, with its Dynamics GP 2013 and NAV 2013 products now available for deployment on its Azure service.

Efficiency will hold down storage growth, IDC says

Stephen Lawson) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:06:00 GMT

Lean storage techniques will keep a lid on storage investments over the next few years, though the world's enterprises still are on track to buy 138 exabytes of storage system capacity in 2017, IDC said.

European and US cloud providers go head-to-head after NSA revelations

Mikael Ricknäs) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:19:00 GMT

European cloud providers think the U.S. spy scandal will result in more enterprises choosing local alternatives over the likes of Amazon Web Services and Rackspace, which, on the other hand, are adamant that they aren't taking part in programs such as Prism.

Spy-proof enterprise encryption is possible, but daunting

Lucian Constantin) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:19:00 GMT

Data encryption could help enterprises protect their sensitive information against mass surveillance by governments, as well as guard against unauthorized access by ill-intended third parties, but the correct implementation and use of data encryption technologies is not an easy task, according to security experts.

Microsoft protects cloud with directory-integrated two-factor authentication

Mikael Ricknäs) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:39:00 GMT

Microsoft is upping the security on Azure with Active Authentication, a new service now in preview which allows enterprises to secure access to hosted applications such as Office 365 with two-factor authentication.

Startup touts private cloud as a service

Brandon Butler) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:10:00 GMT

You can buy pretty much anything in IT today "as a service," and now it's come to this: 2011 startup company named Metacloud claims to be one of the first to offer a cloud-based service of cloud computing resources.

VMware: We're building one of the biggest SDN deployments in the industry

Brandon Butler) — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 08:33:00 GMT

VMware hopes to make the networking components of its soon-to-be-released vCloud Hybrid Service one of its biggest selling points, and in doing so the company plans to build one the largest software-defined networking (SDN) deployments in the industry.

Marketo rolls out 'customer engagement' tools as Salesforce.com threat looms

Chris Kanaracus) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:18:00 GMT

Marketo says it has created tools that put it far ahead of rival marketing automation software vendors by making it much easier to run targeted campaigns, and more effective ones to boot.

Cisco overtakes IBM as top cloud hardware provider, researchers say

Brandon Butler) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 09:59:00 GMT

Cisco has overtaken IBM as the leading provider of infrastructure for cloud computing, analysts at Synergy Research reported today.

Expert: Oracle's Fusion Applications still maturing, but offer real value

Chris Kanaracus) — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:44:00 GMT

Oracle still has some kinks to work out in its next-generation Fusion Applications and implementing them on-premises remains a daunting task, but customers on older product lines have good things to look forward to if and when they upgrade, according to one veteran of many early Fusion projects.

IBM looks to Java Virtual Machine as key to cloud mobile services

Ellen Messmer) — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 09:35:00 GMT

IBM is conducting research that involves making use of the open Java Virtual Machine (JVM) in a cloud-based setting as a way to provide dynamic services, especially to mobile devices.

Box pays developers to make apps that use its cloud

Brandon Butler) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 08:23:00 GMT

Box will begin rewarding developers who create applications that use its cloud storage platform.

Salesforce.com hires former Oracle executive as president

John Ribeiro) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 03:20:00 GMT

Salesforce.com has hired a key former Oracle executive Keith Block as its president and vice chairman.

CirroScope: Stealthy cloud security startup hatched by ex-Symantec teammates

Bob Brown) — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 08:46:00 GMT

A small team of ex-Symantec security experts has formed a stealthy Silicon Valley start-up called CirroScope that's focused on shielding enterprises from threats stemming from their use of SaaS applications such Box, Salesforce.com and Google Apps.

Microsoft : Hybrid cloud is good for IT, end users and corporate bottom line

noreply@idg.co.uk (Tim Greene) — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 08:34:00 GMT

Microsoft's vision of corporations using hybrid cloud has benefits for IT departments and end users as well as cost savings, says Brad Anderson, Microsoft vice president of Windows Server and System Center.

SAP buys e-commerce vendor Hybris in strike back at Oracle, Salesforce.com

Chris Kanaracus) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 17:00:00 GMT

SAP is buying privately held Hybris in a bid to build out an e-commerce software offering that connects with customers across multiple "channels, devices and touch points."

SAP buys e-commerce vendor Hybris in strike back at Oracle, Salesforce.com

Chris Kanaracus) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 13:09:00 GMT

SAP is buying privately held Hybris in a bid to build out an e-commerce software offering that connects with customers across multiple "channels, devices and touch points."

Microsoft overhauls pricing for Azure Web services

Tim Greene) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 08:47:00 GMT

Microsoft is cutting prices for many of its Azure services and revamping how it charges for many of its services, the company said during its TechEd North America 2013 keynote.

Possibly related DDoS attacks cause DNS hosting outages

Lucian Constantin) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 19:01:00 GMT

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that could be related have in the past few days slammed the DNS servers of at least three providers of domain name management and DNS hosting services.

IBM buys SoftLayer as part of public cloud push

Mikael Ricknäs) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 13:14:00 GMT

IBM has signed an agreement to acquire SoftLayer Technologies, as it looks to accelerate the build-out of its public cloud infrastructure. The company is also forming a services division to back up the push.

Salesforce.com buying ExactTarget for $2.5 billion

Chris Kanaracus) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 11:09:00 GMT

Salesforce.com is set to deepen its reach into marketing software with the purchase of ExactTarget for about US$2.5 billion. The deal, which was announced Tuesday, is scheduled to close by the end of July.