Red Hat is the latest company offering an alternative to the Hadoop Distributed File System, only this one is open source and ties into Red Hat’s bigger vision of hybrid cloud computing. Read more »
The last quarter of 2012 saw the rise of cloud-based databases, the cloud awakening of software giants such as HP, and many cloud outages that have left question marks. Enterprises found more IT dollars, and they will focus on the cloud for much of that spending. 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 »
Many factors have driven the recent high demand for IT products and services. However, relentless global economic weakness and uncertainty have resulted in a deterioration of worldwide IT spending through the third quarter and will continue to be an anchor in the fourth quarter. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Europe’s Helix Nebula project is addressing the technical, legal, and procedural issues that today make it difficult to seamlessly move jobs from one cloud to another at scale. Lessons learned from it could provide a window through which we can see Europe’s cloud provision taking shape. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A major cloud trend over the past decade has been open source, but at present there is no one standard all providers obey. But anyone looking for a longer-term alternative to AWS now has two exciting new prospects: OpenStack and OpenShift. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The goal of the cloud is to reduce disparate systems and to let IT departments manage their infrastructure and services within a single, integrated solution, from the design stage all the way through production. Here’s how to measure your company’s current cloud plan against this goal. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
It looks like Microsoft is serious about becoming the operating system for cloud computing. At its Worldwide Partner Conference on Tuesday, the company announced what amounts to a white-label version of its Windows Azure cloud platform targeting current Windows Server-based web hosts. Read more »
This quarter saw Amazon Web Services finally relaxing its public-cloud-only stance and launching services to support hybrid-cloud deployments. Meanwhile, Hadoop players moved to make their platforms more accessible to mainstream BI analysts and database administrators. A new quarterly report analyzes these trends and provides a near-term outlook. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Minneapolis-based cloud computing startup enStratus has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding to grow its business of managing all types of clouds across a common interface. EnStratus’ technology provides a secure platform for managing and monitoring numerous cloud offerings through a single interface. Read more »
VMware on Tuesday morning launched the latest version of its vSphere virtualization management software, as well as a suite of integrated products for managing cloud computing environments. There isn’t much new aside from the capabilities in vSphere 5, but VMware’s timing was ideal. Read more »
Virtustream, a cloud computing provider focused on hosting enterprise applications, has raised $10 million in a Series B round. The round was funded by existing investors Intel Capital, Columbia Capital, Noro-Moseley Partners, and TDFunds, which invested $49 million in Virtustream’s Series A round last year. Read more »
When done right, cloud computing actually can be a source of significant competitive advantage. So says Zynga, at least, which highlighted its unique cloud infrastructure, as well as its advanced analytics efforts, as part of its core strengths in the S-1 statement it filed this morning. Read more »
Cloud services have a rosy future, but a long build-out industry cycle is expected as businesses are slow to adopt and accept virtual datacenters. Instead of determining to use a public or a private cloud, enterprises should consider a hybrid, best-of-both-worlds approach. Read more »
Zynga has been releasing details about its innovative hybrid cloud deployment, called Z Cloud, over the past year, and it has finally revealed the final piece of the puzzle. Namely, that the private cloud component of its infrastructure was built using Cloud.com’s CloudStack software. Read more »
Systems giant HP today announced a slew of new enterprise cloud products and services, but it won’t be until later this summer — when it unveils its public cloud services — that we’ll see just how big a role HP will play in the cloud computing space. 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 »
At long last, Microsoft has taken a big step forward in its cloud computing fight against VMware by letting customers manage hybrid on-premise and Windows Azure environments from within Microsoft’s System Center systems management software. Read more »
VMware’s announced that the first three vCloud Datacenter partners are now online and that a new tool for managing hybrid VMware clouds is available. These types of capabilities will bring enterprise users into the cloud fold, perhaps leading to even cloudier ambitions in the future. Read more »
Los Angeles-based startup Morphlabs is rolling out two new features designed to bolster sales of its mCloud line of cloud computing offerings in a crowded field of management platforms. In doing so, however, it might actually be helping show the future model for internal-cloud software pricing. Read more »
Dell made a left turn in its cloud computing acquisition strategy today by acquiring SaaS integration startup Boomi. Most of Dell’s cloud purchases and partnerships have been on the infrastructure front – Scalent, DynamicOps, Joyent, Egenera, 3PAR (attempted) – but Boomi is a straight-up application play. Read more »
VMware used the past couple VMworld events to push visionary cloud strategies, but this year, the virtualization giant merely lived up to expectations — and possibly narrowed the competition gap. Read more »
There are public clouds like Amazon’s EC2, and private clouds run behind firewalls, but some networking experts believe the big opportunity for infrastructure companies and service providers in the future will be finding ways of blending the private and public, or creating bridges between the two. Read more »
For companies protective of their IT operations and data, wholesale public cloud computing adoption can be a difficult pill to swallow. Enter the hybrid cloud–a panacea of sorts, letting companies maintain a mix of on-premise and off-premise cloud computing resources, managed through common frameworks. Read more »
