http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20007421-245.html

Gordon “Fyodor” Lyon, a network security expert and a former president of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, praised Ormandy’s research but did not address whether his releasing the exploit was a good thing or not.

Microsoft and outside security researchers accused a Google engineer of failing to follow the responsible disclosure etiquette his own company promotes by disclosing a Windows XP-related flaw on Thursday, publishing code to exploit it and giving Microsoft only five days to fix it.Tavis Ormandy informed Microsoft about the vulnerability–located in the online Windows Help and Support Center feature that offers customers technical support–on Saturday. He then announced details of the hole and offered proof-of-concept attack code in a post to the Full Disclosure security e-mail list on Thursda

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20007421-245.html

Gordon “Fyodor” Lyon, a network security expert and a former president of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, praised Ormandy’s research but did not address whether his releasing the exploit was a good thing or not.

But at the RSA Conference earlier this year, a panel came together to talk about security and cloud computing, to examine the intersection of cloud computing, security, Internet services, and Internet-based security practices to uncover differences between perceptions and reality.

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/70195.html?wlc=1276540188

For reasons just and unjust alike, cloud computing has developed a reputation that makes some IT pros cringe when they think about security. What’s the difference between perception and reality in this field? It comes down to determining acceptable and comfortable risk. In the cloud, you can’t hide behind the usual firewalls and encryption systems; what matters is the application itself.

Once Azure was released in a ready-to-use form, I read some information about it, but very little of it was aimed at someone like me who did not know the fundamentals. And unfortunately, Microsoft has formed a really bad habit of putting useful information into online videos… as if anyone who works for a living has time to sit through three or four hour-long videos without even being sure if the video really contains the information that they need. All the same, I was able to wade through enough of the available information to find out what Windows Azure is and the basic concepts behind developing for it.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/programming-and-development/?p=2671

The Azure platform looks like an interesting choice if you’re a .NET developer, although I don’t know how the pricing stacks up compared to other services. I think that Azure would definitely be a good choice for things like batch processing (say, running reports, unit tests, integration tests, etc.) where it can be put under a heavy load and scaled down, and the SLA concerns are not a major issue.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/cloud-saas/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225200318&subSection=News

Microsoft says the private and public sectors must work closely together for government to realize the promises of cloud computing.

Google Apps vs. Microsoft Office

In this article we’ll take a look at six common misconceptions IT pros and users have about cloud apps, related to performance, security, management, cost and the long-term effect on IT staffing.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/05251-cloud-apps-misconceptions.html

Cloud apps are free, will put you out of work, and other misconceptions

Hauger emphasized the launch of Azure earlier this year; this week’s pending official release of Microsoft Office 2010, which features cloud-based versions of Office applications like Word, Excel and PowerPoint; and myriad other Microsoft offerings.

http://www.crn.com/software/224701573

“There are some dimensions of the cloud that have become fairly apparent,”

Was it a new name for outsourcing? A different kind of computer network? Or just marketing nonsense?
But the overcast is beginning to clear: Cloud computing is a new business that lets you rent computers by the hour, the way you might rent a fishing boat.

http://www.startribune.com/business/93351379.html?elr=KArks:DCiU1OiP:DiiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

Microsoft and Lawson Software say renting computers by the hour is the next big thing — but skeptics remain.

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2010/05/03/story8.html?b=1272859200^3282471

In a sign of Amazon’s interest in the federal cloud market, the company last year teamed with Apptis, the Chantilly, Va.-based government IT services company, to respond to a request for quotes (RFQ) put out by the General Services Administration.

We had a long chat about the pilot projects that Capgemini is running for the government in relation to the G-cloud programme. I will be writing an analysis of this next week but thought I would get some of it out of my system.
The interview left me thinking that the next government, whoever it may be, could make big mistakes by targeting IT projects to meet cost cutting targets. If the wrong projects are canned the costs in the long term and loss could be huge.

http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/inside-outsourcing/2010/04/could-cloud-computing-be-the-answer-to-cutting-billions-of-government-spending.html

Capgemini is building two full cloud infrastructures with one using Microsoft and the other the Cisco, EMC and VMware partnership. It is then building development platforms on top of these infrastructures. The final layer in the cloud will be software as a service.