http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid201_gci1513441,00.html

Dave McCandles, Zebra Enterprise’s director of IT, likes this idea. “It lets us deploy based on the maturity of the user,” he said.

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.

Much like other cloud computing offerings, AT&T’s Synaptic Compute as a Service aims to give users scalable on-demand computing capacity that they can increase or decrease depending on their immediate needs and without the need to invest heavily in on-site infrastructure. The service’s key features include a Web portal for ordering and managing service capacity; disk capacity for every virtual server’s operating system; and 24-hour network monitoring and management by AT&T’s support staff.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/11/15/urnidgns852573C400693880002576700021FA74.DTL

AT&T upped its cloud portfolio Monday when announced it was working with VMware and Sun to develop its own cloud computing service.’

In a direct challenge to computer giants IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., data storage firm EMC Corp. of Hopkinton has allied with Cisco Systems Inc., the world’s leading computer networking company.

In a joint venture, EMC, its majority-owned subsidiary VMware Inc., and Cisco will sell prefabricated business computer systems. The new products will be built with computer servers from Cisco, data storage hardware and software from EMC, and server management software from VMware. “Wherever you touch any one of the three of us, we will look like one company,’’ said Cisco chief executive John Chambers.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2009/11/04/emc_cisco_alliance_takes_on_computing_giants_ibm_hp/

Joint venture with VMware to offer complete systems

Cloud computing is coming of age. It provides virtually unlimited computing resources in a wide variety of offerings. It offers new business models as to how to leverage, package, and access computing resources. An actual example illustrates some of the cloud’s potential. Franz Inc, makers of advanced Semantic Web tools, wanted to test its software product across dozens of machines and databases. The problem was that Franz didn’t have machines or the software and obtaining them was cost prohibitive — in excess of $100,000 — not to mention the delays in acquisition and configuration. However, the test was critical. It would demonstrate the product’s value and provide a credible differentiation from the competition. What to do? Franz opted for a cloud solution, staging its service on Amazon’s S3. The company ran its complex tests in a few days, and gained a wealth of insights and performance data to evaluate — and at a cost of less than $200. For Franz, cloud computing changed the competitive analysis and understanding of performance in the large at a fraction of the cost and time

http://www.ddj.com/web-development/220300736

Cloud computing provides virtually unlimited computing resources in a wide variety of offerings

n the opening post of this series, I joined Chris Hoff and others in arguing that cloud computing will change the way we package server software, with an emphasis in lean “just enough” systems software. This means that the big, all-purpose operating system of the past will either change dramatically or disappear altogether, as the need for a “handle all comers” systems infrastructure is redistributed both up and down the execution stack.

The reduced need for specialized software packaged with bloated operating systems in turn means the virtual server is a temporary measure; a stopgap until software “containers” adjust to the needs of the cloud-computing model. In this post, I want to highlight a second reason why server virtualization (and storage and network virtualization) will give way to a new form of resource virtualization.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19413_3-10365278-240.html

So, the success of applications running in a virtualized environment is not dependent of the specialization of the underlying hardware. That is a critical change to the way IT operates.

If you’re to believe the hype, you’re already behind the curve if your organization is not actively deploying apps on the cloud. At the recent VMworld tradeshow sponsored by VMware, the theme of the show and its numerous sessions was cloud computing. Many presentations and vendors took the curious position that the leap from virtualization to the cloud is a small one. And vendors that did not exist 18 months ago were holding forth on the benefits and challenges of cloud computing. I haven’t seen this much hype about a technology that enables you to do what you’re already doing since the days when SaaS was the new hot thing.

http://www.sdtimes.com/INTEGRATION_WATCH_DISPELLING_THE_CLOUD_HYPE/By_ANDREW_BINSTOCK/About_CLOUDCOMPUTING_and_VIRTUALIZATION/33791

Experience tells me that one symptom of insubstantial realities is the presence of multiple definitions of the core concept.

Pop Quiz: If your favourite hosting provider launches a cloud service that supports VMware vSphere and is part of the VMware vCloud initiative, are they providing you with the rich vCloud functionality VMware is touting at VMworld this week?

The answer is no, because vCloud hasn’t been delivered yet and probably won’t be until the first half of 2010. If you answered yes, don’t feel too bad because VMware, in its efforts to prepare the market for vCloud, has made the current state very confusing.

http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2485&blogid=23

Let the API wars begin

As tech buzzwords go, “cloud computing” is one of the least threatening you’re ever likely to encounter. Indeed, much like its fluffy floating namesake, the concept is equal parts hard reality and nebulous intangibility.

But cloud computing is so pervasive that you’re almost certainly using it already. Every time you fiddle around on Facebook, find your way using Google Maps or upload photos to share via Flickr, you’re tapping into the cloud.

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/biz-tech/flying-on-a-cloud-of-possibilities-20090915-fonn.html

Everything you need to run your enterprise no longer has to be in the office. It can be “out there”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/08/17/urnidgns002570F3005978D885257615005FA9AC.DTL#

It provides a complete cloud offering