Cloud vendors have a tough row to hoe convincing enterprise accounts to put mission critical data or apps on their infrastructure. A new U.S. government report may not help things. Read more »
Quantum cryptography is a kind of holy grail solution for securing sensitive networked resources. Researchers at Los Alamos National Lab have revealed that they’ve successfully been running what amounts to a mini quantum internet. Read more »
An Atlanta-based startup called Ionic Security has raised a $9.4 million Series A-1 round to develop its technology that aims to let employees access data on whatever devices and networks they want without fear of having their data stolen along the way. Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers […] Read more »
Startups and enterprises alike face barriers when it comes to cloud adoption. This includes security, speed of access to cloud resources, and runaway network costs. However, multiple solutions for direct access are being provided to address this issue for companies big and small. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Cloud computing’s increased performance cannot be sustained if the corresponding cost to the service provider (SP) for delivering this performance also increases. What service providers need is a way of delivering low latency, fast response, and increasing performance while minimizing the cost of the network. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The way the industry will use cloud-computing technology in 2013 will require following the existing adoption patterns and trends into the New Year. Those trends include the rise of standards, big data’s role in the cloud, industry-specific clouds, security, and more. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As the volume of connected devices increases, so too will the probability of hackers targeting these systems to exploit networks, steal data, hijack systems, and compromise workflows. Security specialists recognize the potential risks and are already developing technologies and methodologies for hardening M2M systems from attack. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
These suggestions might seem like common sense, but the more we use cloud services, the more we put ourselves at risk of identity theft and other negative effects of cybercrime. Here are six ways to at least make it more difficult to steal your data. Read more »
For renowned computer hacker turned security consultant Kevin Mitnick, his online life is like one big playground game. “It’s like I’m the king of the mountain,” Mitnick says, “and everybody wants to take me down.” He has found a knight, though, in cloud provider FireHost. Read more »
Many IT professionals find migrating corporate applications to the cloud a difficult, time-consuming and altogether painful task, according to results of a new survey from Cisco. While the majority of respondents expressed relative comfort with their cloud migrations, some took rather extreme negative positions. Read more »
RSA says the way to handle security threats is by harnessing big data, but the tools aren’t out there yet for mainstream business ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Analyst powerhouses IDC and Gartner both rolled out their latest cloud computing and big data predictions and statistics Thursday morning, and while some are bold, others should have you saying “Duh.” Here’s what they have to say, and how that squares with what I’m seeing. Read more »
A long-running clash of legal approaches to the handling of personal data is coming to a head, as European countries begin to act.
In Germany, Deutsche Telekom is calling for more stringent regulation of cloud providers, and in the Netherlands a government minister suggests that U.S. companies could be ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Verizon is buying cloud computing startup CloudSwitch in a move that will give Verizon, as well as its subsidiary Terremark, a software-development edge to complement its service-provider expertise. CloudSwitch will lead software development beyond its core product, which will give Verizon additional cloud intellectual property. Read more »
Last week’s outages at Microsoft and Amazon Web Services reiterated a very important lesson in cloud computing: Even the best-laid plans won’t stand up to an act of god or faulty electrical infrastructure. That’s why the burgeoning field of cloud insurance looks even better than ever. Read more »
GreenSQL, an Israeli-based startup that offers software that secures databases has raised a second round of funding led by Rhodium and Atlantic Capital Partners. The funding will allow the company to expand to the U.S. and build products for NoSQL tools used today. Read more »
Cloud-computing insurance has long been posed as a solution to the problem of cloud users assuming too much risk of failure in the wake of things such as lengthy outages, data breaches and Lulzsec attacks. But it seems the idea of off-loading some of that risk ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Apple is including a tool in iCloud that should make signing up for it a no-brainer for Mac owners: Find My Mac, which went live for iCloud beta users Wednesday. Like Find My iPhone, the service provides an approximate location for all a user’s iCloud-connected Macs. Read more »
When the federal government finally does undertake the task of legislating cloud computing, it seems very likely that security measures and data privacy will dominate. The TechAmerica Foundation’s CLOUD2 commission announced Tuesday a data- and security-heavy set of recommendations that mirror proposed legislation targeting the cloud. Read more »
Yesterday, Google announced a new feature that alerts web surfers when their PCs might be infected with malware, but it’s hardly the only company using big data to fight cybercrime. We’ve covered a handful of them of over the past couple years. Read more »
Former Reddit Chief Architect Jeremy Edberg will be joining Netflix to lead a new team focused on cloud reliability. And the move couldn’t come soon enough, as Netflix suffered another period of downtime Sunday evening that left users with spotty service for up to eight hours. Read more »
With its new SplitSecure technology, Structure 2011 LaunchPad finalist BeyondCore is trying to prove that companies processing sensitive data don’t have to be afraid of cloud computing. The company has actually been around since 2003, but SplitSecure represents its first foray into the cloud. Read more »
Cloud computing has grown from a pie-in-the-sky vision to a major IT movement over the past few years. As its promise has grown, though, so too has its scope. This report covers six key sectors in cloud computing: commodity Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), enterprise IaaS, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), cloud storage and private clouds. We highlight the current state of each and provide informed insights into where they — and cloud computing in general — are headed. Much like any market in a still-evolving state, the infrastructure of the cloud-computing transition is still being built by startups, practitioners and even a big-name company or two. Companies mentioned in this report include VMware, Amazon, Nasuni, Terremark and Heroku. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Simon Crosby is leaving his post as data center and virtualization CTO at Citrix Systems to launch a new company called Bromium that will utilize virtualization technology to tackle cloud computing security. The company raised $9.2 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Read more »
Two markets stand out above all else when looking at the first quarter of 2011: infrastructure as a service (IaaS) — the epitome of cloud computing — and big data. Amazon Web Services continues to lead the IaaS space in terms of customers and innovation, while Rackspace, buoyed by momentum around OpenStack, will be its primary competitor for mainstream customers. In the big data space, there are so many players and terms floating about it’s difficult for outsiders to get a handle on who’s who and what’s what, though such activity validates the technologies. Other developments this quarter included HP’s impending presence in the cloud computing and big data spaces and the realization that Intel won’t be left to die if low-power servers based on x86 processors catch on like the buzz late last year suggests they will. Additional companies mentioned in this report include VMware, Microsoft, Cloudera, SeaMicro and Facebook. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
TechAmerica’s Commission on the Leadership Opportunity in U.S. Deployment of the Cloud (CLOUD2) officially kicked off its three-month mission today to advise the Obama administration on cloud computing best practices, and pushing cloud interoperability is high on the commission’s list of goals. Read more »
This past weekend, beta-phase PaaS offering PHP Fog was hacked and vandalized by a couple of teenagers, a situation that raises serious questions about cloud security. But the questions aren’t just about technology; the case also raises issues about who’s ultimately responsible for security breaches. Read more »
Amazon Web Services has been on a tear lately in terms of rolling out new features that go a long way toward patching the weak spots in its cloud armor, and it did so again today with the announcement of an actual virtual private cloud capability. Read more »
Intel’s fourth-quarter earnings make up for the dearth of news elsewhere. There are so many questions about Intel’s future that one has to wonder if this might be the last record-setting quarter. The other links point to worthwhile analysis on Hadoop, Cloudant and cloud security. Read more »
It’s a mixed bag today, ranging from the latest cloud statistics to Teradata’s growing revenues. In between, we have a questionable federal cloud-security roadmap, an interview with Hadoop creator Doug Cutting and, believe it or not, a rumor that VMware is working on Hyper-V support. Read more »
Around the world, organizations and individuals are coming together to tackle technological hurdles to cloud computing. Just this week, Intel launched its Open Data Center Alliance and Cloud Builders initiatives; last week, CloudAudit joined the Cloud Security Alliance. But when it comes down to it, people, ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Around the world, organizations and individuals are coming together to tackle technological hurdles in cloud computing. Various consortia are working on cloud standards and best practices, but it’s people, not technology, that could potentially represent the biggest obstacle when it comes to selling cloud computing. Read more »
With EMC in talks to buy Isilon and news of Dell’s DCS business only getting better, the future is all about lots and lots of cheap boxes. And speaking of the future, will all the post-M&A integration leave “supervendors” hamstrung as IT passes them by? Read more »
You won’t find much argument over 2009’s moniker as “Year of the Cloud,” but you might have forgotten some of the big news that earned it that title. Here are my picks for the most important cloud news of 2009 – stories that had immediate impact ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
