cloud

Keeping the mission-critical out of the cloud

Software-as-a-service technology is "several years away" from being enterprise-ready, but companies should begin experimenting with the technology, according to a Citrix executive.

Martin Duursma, chair of the Citrix CTO office and vice president of advanced products, said it is "early days" for the cloud computing scene. "We are on the steepest portion of the hype cycle curve," he said, and advised against fully handing over an enterprise to the "cloud" just yet.

He raised the example of online photo sharing site, SmugMug, which relies on Amazon.com's utility Web storage service. … Read more

Video added to Google Apps

Google is introducing video into Google Apps with the hope that companies will be attracted to a service that helps with training and internal communication but also removes the hassles of hosting video.

According to Google executives who spoke to CNET News last week, the search giant has tailored some of the technology developed by YouTube specifically for corporate clients. The offering is part of Google's continuing efforts to replace traditional office software with so-called cloud-computing services.

With the help of Google Video for Business, a company's employees can upload and share clips with the same ease as … Read more

Flexiscale Cloud recovers with zero data loss

I've recently written about using the Cloud for backup and disaster recovery, as well as the potential for data loss on Cloud based services should things go wrong. Case in point, service provider Flexiscale had some issues that took their Cloud storage offline.

However, thanks to some good planning and well-managed processes, customer data is getting back online and the company hasn't seen any loss of data.

The update email from CEO Tony Lucas below:… Read more

EIC Squared: Psystar vs. Apple, Cisco vs. Microsoft, Dell's cloud

On this week's EIC Squared podcast, ZDNet's Larry Dignan and I discuss the legal tussle between Apple and the Mac cloner, Psystar.

This week, Psystar sued Apple on antitrust grounds. Psystar execs said they just want to make the Mac OS "more accessible" by offering it on cheaper hardware than what Apple provides. It's hard not to imagine Apple fighting this one to the bitter end and Psystar getting crushed in a lengthy litigation.

Another battle is brewing with Cisco Systems adding e-mail and calendaring to its on-demand, collaborative software platform with the acquisition of PostPath. … Read more

A Cloud computing vocabulary test

From Cloudsourcing to Cloudstorming to Cloudburst (which can be both negative and positive) a new set of terminology has arrived. It was inevitable. Embrace the Cloud.

Over on Thinking Out Cloud, Geva Perry outlines some of the new Cloud Computing Terminology, which does start to sound a bit like Dr. Seuss after a while.

These new terms help to explain the various aspects of the Cloud and somewhere down the line it starts to show that the internet and SOA have come together. Nonetheless, make sure you hold your breath lest you drown in the metaphorical sky.

Disclaimer: The opinions … Read more

Dell's designs on cloud computing

SAN FRANCISCO--Standing 52 stories in the air at the upscale Carnelian Room in the Bank of America building here, executives from Dell, Facebook, and Salesforce.com discussed the meaning and use of the latest technology buzzword, cloud computing.

The sky was blue and cloudless, but it didn't adversely impact the atmosphere of what turned out to be a Dell marketing event. It was pitched as an announcement about a partnership that involves "the next generation of cloud computing."

You might recall that Dell is the company that owns the URL Cloudcomputing.com, and made a failed attempt … Read more

Another large-scale Cloud data loss in process?

My post on using the Cloud for storage went live just minutes before my intrepid IT guy Kevin received this email from utility computing provider Flexiscale about the potential large-scale loss of data stored on their Cloud storage service.

The short version: human error in their backup process deleted one of the main storage volumes. Roughly 12 hours later users have read-only access to the storage platform but no read-write. And now, they have to rebuild, but don't have the space.

"After consulting with our storage vendor it was agreed the most sensible option would be to copy the entire volume to a new disk structure (still maintaining it's integrity and structure), from where we could re-mount it correctly. Unfortunately due to it's size we didn't have spare capacity on the platform to create a complete duplicate of it."

Without disparaging Flexiscale, this is what I mean about the BigCos like IBM figuring these "enterprise-class" features out before enterprises move into Cloud consumption.

Full email pasted below:… Read more

Opportunity for disaster recovery in the cloud

The vast scale of services like Amazon S3 or Google Apps provide new ways to establish or augment backup and disaster recovery plans.

Realistically, many large corporations won't trust their data to Google or Amazon.com (and they probably shouldn't). However, they will trust IBM, AT&T, and other big companies, as they start to expand their offerings.

If you are using AT&T bandwidth, and you can tap into its data centers for data recovery, you've just solved a major problem in a theoretically secure manner.

Managed backup and data recovery services do exist … Read more

Polluting the cloud with incompatible ideas and applications

Cloud computing means different things to different people. In this guest post, Tom Mornini, CTO, of Engine Yard looks at the differences amongst the applications that get lumped together as one amorphous cloudy mass.

Navigating the cloud Guest post by Tom Mornini, CTO, Engine Yard

The term cloud computing is now in common use. So common in fact, that it clearly encompasses many incompatible ideas. Let's consider the differences among Amazon's AWS, Google's AppEngine, and Apple's MobileMe.

AWS provides "raw" compute resources via EC2 and higher level services such as S3, SQS, and SimpleDB. … Read more