Articles by Cloud Computing News Desk

Soonr Brings Mobile Cloud Computing to iPhone

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:00:00 EST

Soonr has announced the launch of an iPhone application that uses cloud computing to keep users in touch with their documents. A free version is available from the Apple App Store with expanded versions offered through mobile operators and SaaS providers. Soonr makes the documents on a Mac or PC completely mobile. When the computer is online, Soonr automatically and instantly backs up the user’s files in a "personal cloud." iPhone users get a view of all their documents - whether they are Word, Excel, PowerPoint or virtually any other file type.

SaaS Provider Binfire Offers Free File Sharing Software

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:00:00 EST

Binfire, a new entry into SaaS market, has announced the release of the beta version of Binfire.com, a comprehensive suite of online software tools for file sharing, file management and group collaboration using WEB 2.0 features. Binfire.com offers online office tools for individuals and SMBs. A more expanded service for SMB's will be offered in the near future. Users visiting binfire.com can send files as large as 100MB to their family & friends. Every user receives free unlimited storage space when they become a member of binfire.com and there is no

Callfinity to Provide Cloud-Based Services for 2010 U.S. Census

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:00:00 EST

Callfinity has announced that they have been awarded a contract by Harris Corporation to provide contact center systems and hosted services in support of the 2010 Decennial Census. Callfinity's ContextIP contact center suite will be provided on a hosted basis as part of the Census Field Data Collection Automation (FDCA) program. Callfinity will be providing a cloud-based, hosted Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system for Census personnel in support of the FDCA program. Enumerators at local census offices will connect, through Callfinity's systems, to local census offices, national overflow

CTERA Networks Introduces Cloud Attached Storage

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:00:00 EST

CTERA Networks has introduced its Cloud Attached Storage technology. By bundling Network Attached Storage and cloud storage services into a single appliance, the new technology marries the performance and simplicity of a local NAS device with the scalability and reliability of cloud storage to enable service providers to launch new consumer and small business services.CTERA also announced that it has secured first-round venture financing from Benchmark Capital. CTERA is unveiling its smallest form factor appliance, the CloudPlug: a tiny form-factor, plug-top computing device that transforms any external USB hard drive into a NAS device with automatic backup. The contents of any attached USB drive are automatically backed up online without the need for any user intervention or PC client software.

rPath and WANdisco to Create Cloud-Ready Software

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:15:00 EST

rPath and WANdisco today announced that WANdisco has selected the rPath rBuilder and rPath Lifecycle Management Platform to build and maintain its Subversion MultiSite solution as a manageable set of application images for delivery in virtualized and cloud-based environments. rPath seeks to reduce the cost and complexity of application delivery, and WANdisco is a provider of distributed software development solutions. As a result of this partnership, WANdisco’s Subversion MultiSite solution will be available as a virtual appliance.

Hostway Launches Cloud Computing Service FlexCloud

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST

Hostway Corporation has launched its cloud computing infrastructure FlexCloud, adding cloud computing functionality to all its hosting packages. The new service includes automated allocation of CPU, memory, storage and bandwidth for individual websites. The company states that the first to benefit will be its North American customers' websites, which will be hosted on the new cloud computing infrastructure. All new customers' websites will also be placed on FlexCloud. It further states that FlexCloud includes automated allocation of CPU, memory, storage and bandwidth for individu

Ingres Using Salesforce CRM to Extend Cloud Computing

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:00:00 EST

Salesforce.com has announced that Ingres Corporation is using Salesforce CRM to support its global business growth. Following a two week deployment, Ingres integrated Salesforce CRM with the Intacct financial management system from the Force.com AppExchange. Salesforce.com partner Demand Solutions Group helped Ingres with its Salesforce CRM deployment and customization. Ingres is deploying Intacct, Xactly and Vtrenz via the Force.com AppExchange to extend cloud computing throughout the enterprise.

Cloud Computing Is Coming of Age

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:00:00 EST

SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Journal seeks to boost your understanding of Cloud Computing concepts and to bring you the latest news, views, and developments - but we couldn't do so without our amazing high-energy pool of contributors, including many of the hard-working executives driving some of today's most successful Cloud strategies, technologies and techniques.

Scio Hires New VP of Business Development

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:00:00 EST

Scio Consulting, a provider of Nearshore Outsourced Product Development (OPD) for ISVs, SaaS and Web companies, has announced a key addition to their executive management team. Scio CEO, Luis Aburto, said that the company hired former MassMutual and Kanbay (now CapGemini) executive Jeremy Beck as VP of Business Development to be responsible for growing sales in the North America region. Mr. Beck, 35, will begin working at the Mexico-based nearshore development center immediately.

Newly Released Cfengine 3 will Manage Resource Clouds

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:00:00 EST

Following 5 years of research and development, Cfengine AS has released an upgrade of the Open Source, self-repairing software cfengine based on its Promise Theory technology. Cfengine is a self-repairing maintenance engine capable of fixing errors and misalignments in the Data Center without human intervention. Systems are compliant and maintained even when humans are unavailable, because they have made all the decisions in advance.

JumpBox Releases 38 Open Source Virtual Appliances for Amazon Cloud Service

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:00:00 EST

JumpBox has announced the release of 38 Open Source applications to the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service. The release enables server application deployment, configuration, and management almost completely independent of any user hardware. JumpBox offers small to mid-sized organizations a library of Open Source applications packaged as pre-built, pre-configured virtual appliances through JumpBox Open, its annual subscription service. Public Amazon Machine Images (AMI) for twelve JumpBox applications, including Ruby on Rails

SYS-CON White Paper: Email as Evidence

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:00:00 EST

Today’s litigious and regulatory environments mean organizations are obligated to electronically store information to support discovery and disclosure requests. Organizations that archive email in a ‘fractured’ environment risk losing control and may struggle to produce evidential-quality email evidence. Click here to learn more and download this White Paper now.

SYS-CON White Paper: Using a Hosted Service for Holistic E-Mail Management

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:00:00 EST

Increasingly complex messaging requirements characterized by worldwide regulatory, compliance and archiving issues in addition to longstanding security concerns are driving the adoption of holistic email management "from the cloud." Holistic email management solutions from the cloud are hosted services that integrate messaging management with archiving, business continuity and security components. To learn more about this concept, click here and download the White Paper now.

Insight Named First U.S.-Based Reseller Partner to Serve VMware Cloud Initiative

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:00:00 EST

Insight Enterprises has announced that it has been named the first U.S.-based reseller partner to offer subscription licenses to serve the expanded VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP). VSPP partners are part of the VMware vCloud Initiative, which delivers an enterprise-class cloud computing platform. The VMware vCloud initiative offers broad support for existing and new applications, and it enables federation between on- and off-premise clouds. The core technology underpinning

CX2 Technologies Installs 220 MHz Wireless Data System Using Cloud Technology

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:00:00 EST

CX2 Technologies announced that it has completed the installation and testing of a 220 MHz data communications system for Kennedy Wireless Partners in Brooklyn, New York. While the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has distributed many 220 MHz licenses, the CX2 installation for Kennedy Wireless Partners is the first fully functional 220 MHz data communications system. Kennedy Wireless chose Digital Dial to implement a turnkey digital data solution for the 220 MHz narrow band spectrum. The turnkey solution comprises customer management, billing, credit card processing, vehicle location

PS Audio’s Cloud-Driven PowerPlay

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:00:00 EST

PS Audio is now shipping its Cloud Computing-based line of power conditioners. PowerPlay, a web-controlled power conditioner, utilizes Cloud Computing for access and control of components of home theater systems. “The robust nature of the Cloud enables the PowerPlay system to provide a control bridge that connects equipment in custom installations to the dealer/installer through an astonishingly simple web interface. You won’t have to bother with IP addresses or software downloads at all,” says Paul McGowan, CEO

Netbooks and Cloud Computing on the Rise

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:30:00 EST

Global notebook PC shipments exceeded those of desktops on a quarterly basis for the first time ever in the third quarter, marking a watershed event in the history of the industry, according to iSuppli Corp. Notebook PC shipments rose almost 40 percent in the third quarter of 2008 compared to the same period of 2007 to reach 38.6 million units. Conversely, desktop PC shipments declined by 1.3 percent for the same period to 38.5 million units.

VAI Joins IBM Software to Deliver Cloud Services

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:00:00 EST

VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.), an IBM Premier Business partner, announced that it has joined the IBM Software as a Service (SaaS) Specialty program to deliver cloud services to its clients. VAI’s S2K Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Suite, leveraging IBM’s Power Systems, WebSphere, WebSphere Portal and DB2 database software, will now be available using the SaaS delivery model to provide the power and unsurpassed value that the distribution, manufacturing, retail and service industries need to address key business issues and deliver bottom-line results. IBM offers hardware, software and infrastructure technologies to help its Business Partners deliver secure and scalable cloud services. Regardless of the state of adoption, IBM can help its partner’s design, build, deliver and market SaaS solutions to help clients transform their businesses.

PortWise 4.7 Delivers Support for OATH and Security for Cloud Computing

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:30:00 EST

PortWise has announced the worldwide availability of PortWise 4.7, a new open authentication platform and transaction gateway focused on web service transactions and extended support for secure cloud computing. “With PortWise 4.7 we further extend our versatile authentication platform with a vast number of additional authentication methods. We are seeing a continuously growing demand for open and scalable solutions that are mobile and most importantly are cost effective,” says Per Hägerö, CTO at PortWise.

NPR Asks: Will Cloud Computing Work in the White House?

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:55:00 EST

"The Internet IS cloud computing," according to a holiday-time broadcast on National Public Radio. The program, called 'Will Cloud Computing Work in the White House' aired December 21 on NPR's All Things Considered and involved NPR's Andrea Seabrook discussing with security and technology experts how the White House computers should run under incoming President Barack Obama.

Seasonal Gifts From Google App Engine

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:35:00 EST

According to Brett Slatkin of Google's App Engine Team, a new billing feature for App Engine is on the horizon, which will enable an app to grow beyond Google's free quotas. He also unveiled an App Engine System Status Site that monitors the latency and uptime of various components and provides real-time visibility into their performance, and a new Quota Details Dashboard.

Ten Cloud Computing Predictions for 2009 - From Appirio

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:30:00 EST

As the year draws to a close, many companies are left wondering what next year will bring for this year's hottest technology trend - cloud computing. To answer these questions, Appirio today released its top 10 predictions for how cloud computing will evolve in 2009 and the impact those trends will have on IT and business. Appirio's predictions reveal that in spite of our current economy, cloud computing will continue to see strong growth and investment over the next year -- a prediction that industry analysts agree with as well.

Elastic Server to Complement Virtualization and Cloud Computing

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:15:00 EST

CohesiveFT has announced its partnership with Virtual Iron to automate the deployment of Virtual Iron servers via the Elastic Server web-based factory. Elastic Server is an automated "factory" that allows IT professionals to assemble, deploy, and manage virtual servers using a simple point-and-click interface. Customers can assemble custom Enterprise-class servers for deployment to the Virtual Iron format. "CohesiveFT has created a compelling platform that reduces the complexity of creating production-ready virtual servers comprised of multi-sourced components," said Chris Barclay, director of product management at Virtual Iron.

Aptana PHP with AJAX and Cloud Computing Features

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:00:00 EST

Aptana has launched the 1.0 version of Aptana PHP, an open source, integrated development environment (IDE) for PHP application development. Aptana PHP extends Aptana Studio, the Eclipse-based IDE for AJAX and Web development that is on track to exceed 2.8 million downloads before year-end. Aptana PHP features code assist and instant syntax checking features simultaneously support PHP, AJAX libraries, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.

Taleo Selects OpSource to Deliver On-Demand Talent Management Solution

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:15:00 EST

OpSource has announced that Taleo will leverage OpSource On-Demand to deliver Taleo Business Edition Platform. Taleo Business Edition is the company’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering consisting of recruiting and performance management solutions for small and medium businesses (SMBs). When Taleo decided to outsource SaaS delivery for its SMB client base they needed a scalable solution they could depend on to meet performance requirements and eliminate the large upfront costs of a data center.

Cloud Computing Expo Call For Papers Deadline January 31, 2009

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:00:00 EST

SYS-CON Events, producer of the 2nd International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo, to be held March 30-April 1, 2009, in New York City, announces that its Call for Papers has been attracting a record number of submissions. The deadline for submissions is January 31st, 2009. Topics proposed include all aspects of providing or using massively scalable IT-related capabilities as a service using Internet technologies (see list of Suggested Topics below).

GigaSpaces Announces Extreme Scalability for MySQL Enterprise Customers in Cloud

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:00:00 EST

GigaSpaces Technologies announced the availability of GigaSpaces' eXtreme Application Platform (XAP) for MySQL Enterprise, addressing the scalability and performance needs of demanding MySQL Enterprise customers. Applications running on the combined platform leverage linear scalability, continuous availability, guaranteed persistence and scale-out architecture optimal for cloud and virtualized environments. The solution introduces GigaSpaces transactional and reliable in-memory data grid as a front-end to the database. Essentially, all updates and queries are handled by the distributed data grid while the database remains in sync.

Movero and Ezwim Announce Global Partnership

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:30:00 EST

Movero Technology and Ezwim announced a global partnership to deliver a joint mobile lifecycle management service based on the integration of their respective TTM and Maestro Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms. The joint offering enables organizations to gain visibility into and control over the entire enterprise mobility lifecycle. Ezwim and Movero are offering a service that enables enterprises to manage their mobile devices and keep track of costs, regardless of the number of offices or countries involved. The service can be started in a matter of days, allowing corporations to expand the service when needed.

New Software-as-a-Service Approach to Capacity Management for SMEs

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:00:00 EST

Neptuny introduces Caplan SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), to provide capacity management for small to medium-sized enterprises who want to set up a small-scale capacity planning and management project. Caplan is able to cover multiple domains with its agent-less architecture, out-of-the-box integration to major management platform and tools, and ability to easily integrate custom data sources. It provides advanced analyses, forecasting and reporting capabilities by means of easy-to-use web interfaces and dashboards.

Amazon Extends Elastic Compute Cloud to Europe

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:30:00 EST

"In conjunction with Amazon S3 and Amazon CloudFront in the EU, Amazon Web Services customers can now locate their storage, distribution, and compute in Europe, better allowing them to achieve low latency to their European customers and to meet EU data storage requirements when applicable,” said Peter De Santis, General Manager of Amazon EC2 as Amazon.com today announced that it has extended Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) to Europe.

Photo Album of the 1st International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:35:00 EST

SYS-CON's 1st International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo attracted more than 40 sponsors and exhibitors with over 1,200 preregistered delegates. The three content-packed days emphasized value with a rich array of sessions led by exceptional speakers about the business and technical value of cloud computing.

Servoy 4.1: Eclipse Plug-in for Cloud Computing

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:45:00 EST

Servoy has introduced Servoy 4.1 featuring a single code base development and deployment for desktop and Web applications. Servoy 4.1 is an update to Servoy 4.0, an Eclipse plug-in, enabling Servoy developers to produce enterprise-level applications using a standards-based IDE (Integrated Development Environment), including building iPhone applications.

Sonoa Expands Cloud Analytics Solution

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:00:00 EST

"As businesses are beginning to see more traffic through their cloud services or APIs than their browser-based applications, it is necessary to have a scalable, easy to install analytics solution for valuable business insight," said Chet Kapoor, CEO of Sonoa Systems, as his company announced the availability of Sonoa Analytics, a powerful solution that enables business-level visibility and decision support for cloud services and APIs.

IT Security Webinar on Cloud-Client Architecture Showing Today

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:00:00 EST

How can Trend Micro Enterprise Security, powered by the unique cloud-client architecture of Trend Micro Smart Protection Network, help you ensure that you are immediately and automatically protected from the latest threats with a continuously updated and correlated threat databases? How can it reduce your reliance on time-consuming signature downloads and help you lower complexity and costs by minimizing the time to acquire, deploy and manage your security solution?

WaveMaker Announces Open IDE for Cloud Computing

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 09:56:00 EST

WaveMaker has announced WaveMaker Cloud Edition. WaveMaker Cloud Edition is an open source, integrated development environment (IDE) for cloud computing. WaveMaker Cloud Edition lets anyone build web applications that deploy to the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). With WaveMaker Cloud Edition, developers use a visual, drag-and-drop studio to create full business applications in a browser without needing to install any software onto the desktop.

RightScale Snags $13M in Boost for Cloud Computing Management

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:30:00 EST

"We’re very excited to be working with RightScale's experienced team to guide the company's growth, including its expansion into the European market," said Index Ventures partner Danny Rimer as it was announced today that RightScale has secured $13 million in its second round of venture capital funding, led by Index Ventures.

Salesforce.com and Google Join Forces in Cloud Development

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:16:00 EST

Salesforce.com has announced an expansion of its global strategic alliance with Google with the availability of Force.com for Google App Engine. Force.com for Google App Engine is a new set of tools and services to enable developer success with application development in the cloud. The new offering brings together Force.com and Google App Engine, connecting two cloud computing platforms and enabling the creation of new Web and business applications.

Salesforce.com Launches New Force.com Checkout for Enterprise Cloud Computing

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:28:00 EST

Salesforce.com has unveiled Force.com Checkout, a new set of services to accelerate customer and partner success with buying and selling enterprise cloud computing applications. Customers can use Force.com Checkout as a single source for finding, trying, buying, and deploying salesforce.com applications and partner-built Force.com applications via the Force.com AppExchange.

Is The Cloud the Ultimate Form of Globalization?

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:40:00 EST

If your data is on a European server, and you’re in the US, which country's laws does your data and activities fall under? The Economist addresses these and other questions in a recent report on cloud computing, which they describe as “the ultimate form of globalization.”

Hosting.com Presents Cloud Computing Solution

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 07:00:00 EST

Hosting.com has announced the general availability of CloudNine, a hosted cloud computing environment that provides intuitive, scalable business solutions. CloudNine production solutions are immediately available for beta users, clients and prospects. Hosting.com is continuing to allow companies to participate in the ongoing CloudNine Beta at no charge for 90 days.