Skytap has closed a $10 million Series C round for its business-friendly IaaS cloud. The funding comes after some interesting IaaS developments late in 2010, and might signal that 2011 will be a big year for IaaS cloud providers targeting traditional businesses. Read more »
In 2010, the rapid growth of the application and mobile-driven internet pushed APIs into the spotlight. Fueled by new device platforms and cloud computing, 2010 saw a two-fold increase in new APIs per month over 2009, with more than 2,600 APIs counted in ProgrammableWeb’s API directory. Read more »
We’ve already covered the trends that began to shape up in the infrastructure market in 2010 and will really materialize in 2011. Several companies played — and will continue to play — a big role in making those trends happen. From Facebook to Cloudera to Microsoft, here ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
From ARM Holdings to Facebook to VMware, and whether via acquisitions, innovation or challenging the status quo, many vendors were able to effect paradigmatic shifts in computing or otherwise leave indelible marks on enterprise IT by what they did in 2010. Read more »
Some of the most creative uses of cloud computing use a hybrid of cloud servers and conventional servers to provide the best of both worlds. But there are disadvantages to such an approach, so here’s how engineering organizations have designed hybrid architectures to counter issues. Read more »
The transition to cloud computing won’t realize its potential until more vendors and buyers fully understand security requirements in the cloud. By establishing basic security requirements early and discussing these five questions, companies can position projects for success and avoid common security-related issues. Read more »
Two very different vendors – Oracle and Red Hat – once again reported very impressive quarterly earnings in the past week. However, as cloud computing starts to take hold over the next few years, Red Hat will see even bigger growth, while Oracle might see revenues plummet. Read more »
Thanks to SaaS, the marketplace for business software in many ways reflects the way consumers have acquired web-based goods and services for years. The expectation is that by making the technology easy to acquire, early customers will use it and influence broader adoption in their organizations. Read more »
In the last 18 months, Dell, HP, IBM and EMC spent almost $10 billion on data storage and warehousing companies. This all-out gold rush was driven by a massive consolidation wave sparked by Cisco’s entry into the server market and Oracle’s acquisition of Sun. Read more »
I reported earlier this week on Amazon’s new VM Import service, which some have described as a Hotel California for VMware images. Today, I received word from Amazon Web Services that it’s planning to address this issue, to a degree, as the offering evolves. Read more »
Rather than bombard readers with information with the holidays officially upon us, I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Which of the following big data approaches and startups will thrive, which will remain relegated to specific use cases, and which will simply fade into oblivion? Read more »
Stock traders and hedge funds can’t predict the future yet, but they are doing their best to come as close as possible, and that involves crunching every bit of data they can get their hands on — up to and including that tweet you just posted. Read more »
If there’s one thing certain in IT, it’s that users are always searching for the next big thing, but that legacy vendors and equipment, as well as national technology policy, can slow down progress in immeasurable ways. Here we highlight several happenings and trends in cloud ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Red Hat just announced another solid fiscal quarter, continuing a trend of increased operating system and middleware market share that carried on even through the worst of the current recession. According to CEO Jim Whitehurst, customers know that buying Red Hat means “future-proofing” their IT investments. Read more »
Given the myriad technological, political and cultural obstacles, what chance is there that cloud computing or Green IT will be there within the next 12 months, or that something will convince Apple to open up? I’d say “minimal,” but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Read more »
Data warehousing firm Teradata said it will buy cloud-based integrated marketing software provider Aprimo for $525 million. The deal will help Teradata bolster its analytics and business intelligence services by adding Aprimo’s suite of integrated marketing applications to help enterprises wrangle their stored data for profits. Read more »
Everybody’s misguided sometimes, and that includes computer scientists and software vendors. Today brings news that Akamai lost its patent-infringement appeal against Limelight, Microsoft’s absent hybrid cloud strategy might be affecting Hyper-V adoption and everyone might be wrong that having the fastest supercomputer is so important. Read more »
I asked last week why VMware users would migrate to the cloud using Amazon’s VM Import feature instead of choosing a VMware vCloud partner such as BlueLock or Terremark. After seeing what some interested parties have to say, I’m starting to think interoperability isn’t the goal. Read more »
On Friday, Microsoft’s HPC division opened up the company’s Dryad parallel-processing technologies as a Community Technology Preview (CTP). Dryad could be a rousing success, in part because Hadoop — which is written in Java — is not ideally suited to run atop Windows or support .NET applications. Read more »
Today’s links focus on the importance of infrastructure in building reliable services. We have Tumblr investing in a new data center, KT building a cost-efficient cloud and Citrix’s Simon Crosby telling why private clouds could have helped prevent the Wikileaks debacle on all fronts. Read more »
Nasuni has closed a $15 million Series B round, bringing its total to $23 million over two rounds on the promise of its file system virtual appliance that automatically distributes files between the cloud and a local cache. Read more »
Foursquare has updated its iPhone app with photos and comments, making the location-based service more social. New features will allow users to attach photos to tips and venues, to share more information with people. Comments will also help users weigh-in on a friend’s check-in. Read more »
In pretty much every discussion about Hadoop, the question arises of who’s using it outside of web companies. But to see what’s really going on with Hadoop, we should continue to look to the web and, increasingly, to Facebook in particular.(GigaOM Pro subscription required) Read more »
There are two sides to every story: cloud computing might be a problem or a solution; the responsibility for online privacy might lie with web sites or the government; the ideal server might be either underpowered or overclocked; and Oracle might or might not ruin Java. Read more »
With the launch of ChromeOS, Google CEO Eric Schmidt realized his long-time dream of building a network computer. Today, Dave Girouard, Google Enterprise president, in a blog post, vividly paints the company’s cloud-future. As it takes on Microsoft, Google believes 2011 will be about Web OS. Read more »
Larry Ellison and Oracle aren’t interested when it comes to technology trends. They do their own thing, whether it’s mocking cloud companies or hiring deposed chief executives of rivals. Somehow, it all works out. Oracle reported blowout results for first quarter of 2011 on Friday. Read more »
Anyone who’s walked the exhibition floor of a large IT tradeshow might recognize Splunk for its cleverly emblazoned T-shirts and bumper stickers. But beyond quirky sayings, there’s real value in Splunk’s IT search and monitoring product — so much so that it’s planning an IPO in 2012. Read more »
Today is full of intrigue, at least in terms of relationships among IT vendors. Probably the most intriguing relationships involve Cisco and NetApp, and the foursome that teamed up to purchaseNovell’s intellectual property. Elsewhere, AWS launched VM Import, and open source BI vendors are proliferating. Read more »
Data scientists are becoming employees as companies try to tap the river of data they’re generating to improve their products or build new business opportunities. Here’s a look at how companies are turning more to these data gurus to help lead them to success. Read more »
It seems like every year since 2008 has been dubbed the “Year of the Cloud,” but I think 2010 was it. There are legitimate trends that allow us to get past mere speculation and actually make informed predictions about what the future holds for cloud computing. Read more »
Rackspace is moving up the cloud stack by acquiring Cloudkick, a startup that provides server management and monitoring as a service. Rackspace already has a partnership with CA-owned Nimsoft, so I suspect the purchase was spurred by a desire to compete with Amazon Web Services. Read more »
There was much talk about cloud computing today, all of it hitting different aspects — from how IT organizations will adopt it to what makes a “niche” cloud to how AT&T’s spotty network helped drive the need for it. Hadoop and Cassandra news also caught my eye. Read more »
This year was rightfully advertised as the “Year of the Cloud.” The cloud computing landscape began to take shape in 2010, with providers honing their offerings, important issues surfacing to light and industry consolidation finally beginning to happen. In most areas, however, the action is likely ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Private-cloud pioneer Eucalyptus is furthering its partner-centric growth strategy by partnering with Red Hat. Possibly more important than the announcement, though, is the timing: Eucalyptus is not the only internal-cloud software on the market, and it needs to win back its space in the spotlight. Read more »
A new mobile application from video chat startup ooVoo takes video quality to the next level, posing a threat to existing apps like Qik, FaceTime and Tango. How? It offloads video processing into the cloud, lowering overhead on low-power devices like mobile phones. Read more »
There was lots of cloud news today, but the biggest has to be the Sixth Circuit’s holding protecting email under the Fourth Amendment. Data privacy is one the biggest issues facing cloud computing, and this is a good first step — although it’s just that. Read more »
SimpleCDN’s 5,000-plus customers have seen their service be disrupted after its data center provider changed its terms of service and began pulling its servers. But does the fault lie with SimpleCDN for not diversifying its network better to avoid such an outage? Read more »
At least one senior technologist thinks that Amazon removing WikiLeaks from its servers could raise red flags about the utility of cloud computing, while programmer and open-web advocate Dave Winer believes the incident reinforces the need for an open cloud host to protect our content. Read more »
Scalable SQL startup Clustrix has closed a $12 million Series B round of funding, bringing its total to $30 million. The new money came from existing investors U.S. Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital and ATA Ventures. Considering Clustrix’s steady momentum, this funding shouldn’t take anybody by surprise. Read more »
Bundle uses the billions of Citi customer transactions to draw correlations between spending habits and what other people might enjoy or buy. CTO Phil Kim explains that wrangling even highly structured data takes a lot of organizing, a lot of computing and a lot of time. Read more »
