Cloud Computing

Find cloud computing news, reviews and analysis ranging from SaaS and web applications to cloud services, storage and security.

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Is the cloud going to put IT professionals out of work?

Posted June 15, 2012 - 12:27 pm

One of the selling points I see from cloud providers is that they will save companies money by reducing the need for "expensive" IT staff to maintain networks/servers/etc. Sounds good, I guess, unless you are a member of that IT staff.
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What is unique about Oracle's new public cloud?

Posted June 8, 2012 - 12:24 pm

It seems that every other word that Larry Ellison said during this week's press conference about its new cloud offering was "unique". What does Oracle bring to cloud services that is unique or new?
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Does data centre co-location still make sense for a SMB, or is it time to just go directly for the cloud?

Posted May 18, 2012 - 3:16 pm

In many ways, both are providing the same service. We have co-located our data centre for quite a while, and in general found it to be effective way of controlling cost, both in personnel and equipment.
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How to monitor application performance in the cloud

Posted May 17, 2012 - 8:22 pm

What tool will help me determine what the user experience is for the apps they access in a cloud environment?
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What does it take to choose a cloud service provider other than AWS?

Posted May 1, 2012 - 2:13 pm

Amazon Web Services is the gorilla in the cloud service provider segment, although there are an increasing number of alternatives. When do you consider someone other than AWS?
--Paul Calento http://about.me/paulcalento
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How good of a productivity suite is Zoho?

Posted May 1, 2012 - 1:32 pm

I've been using Google Docs for a few years, but I've never really warmed up the the word processor. I was thinking of switching to Open Office, but a colleague suggested Zoho. I've never used it, and was wondering how it stacks up.
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How well has switching from managing your own email server to an Email Service Provider worked for you?

Posted April 30, 2012 - 2:40 pm

We are considering moving over to an Email Service Provider (ESP). It takes a lot of our time managing our email server, and traffic just keeps growing. We are not a huge company, so additional work falls on just a few shoulders.
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What's the difference between Google Drive and Google Docs?

Posted April 25, 2012 - 4:41 pm

I went and enabled Google Drive today, after a short time got a message that it was ready. I went to it and said to myself, hmmm, this looks just like Google Docs. Then I realize that it appears Drive replaced Docs. I wasn't expecting that.
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How do you evaluate SaaS performance?

Posted April 23, 2012 - 2:29 pm

Like most companies, we have increasingly turned to the Cloud, both for storage and SaaS. Overall, this has been beneficial. Costs are generally down, and reliability is as good or better as it was prior to embracing the cloud. The one area that I have misgivings is SaaS.
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I want to get involved in cloud based open source projects. Can some one please list out few projects and active community?

Posted April 19, 2012 - 1:34 am
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Boomtown RSS

What will it take for Google Drive to become the new Dropbox?

Posted April 17, 2012 - 11:28 am

Google Drive is one of those things that has been been talked about for what seems like forever. Apparently it is finally about to become a reality. At this point, though, we already have Dropbox, SkyDrive, and Amazon Cloud Drive. What's it going to take to make Google Drive succeed (or fail) in this already somewhat crowded environvment?
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Would it be helpful for US companies to adopt the EU guidelines for improving security in cloud contracts?

Posted April 12, 2012 - 12:11 pm

ENISA (the European Network and Information Security Agency) released a set of guidelines that essentially provides a model set of questions for companies entering into contracts with cloud service providers.
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What does Citrix's move to CloudStack mean for OpenStack and OpenStack users?

Posted April 5, 2012 - 11:31 am

Just as OpenStack released its newest cloud OS, Essex, Citrix announced that is was going to drop support of OpenStack and focus on developing its CouldStack platform. How significant is this for OpenStack? Is it something to be concerned about for OpenStack users?
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What are the most valuable skills to possess in a cloud-dominated IT world?

Posted March 26, 2012 - 1:59 pm
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What are the chances that Cloud providers will continue to cut prices?

Posted March 8, 2012 - 12:55 pm

We just got notice yesterday that our Google Cloud Storage costs will be getting cheaper by about 10%. All right, I'll take it. Other than natural gas, I haven't seen many things getting cheaper recently.
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Why would "leap day" take down Windows Azure?

Posted March 6, 2012 - 11:18 am

As many of us know, Azure had a significant service outage on Feb. 29th. Haven't we heard this tune before? I seem to recall a little something about 12/31/99 and y2k. I would assume Microsoft was using a boolean calendar for its software. That's what I don't get.
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What effect did the Windows Azure outage have on your business?

Posted February 29, 2012 - 3:51 pm

We are "lucky" enough to have been in the service area that had a Windows Azure outage this morning. My company is relatively new to cloud computing, and while the outage didn't really cause us any significant problem, mostly because the outage was early in the morning and resolved pretty quickly.
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How do you address capacity planning when you are evaluating moving to cloud computing?

Posted February 24, 2012 - 2:02 pm

Traditionally, capacity planning was essentially looking at new servers funded by applications able to achieve capital investment funding. With a move to the cloud, the assumption is that needed resources will be available on demand.
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How do you define HYBRID cloud computing?

Posted February 22, 2012 - 12:08 pm

Background:
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What are the chances that the cloud will kill off the PC?

Posted February 10, 2012 - 2:58 pm

More and more of the applications that I use are "in the cloud". As SaaS becomes more and more ubiquitious, there seems to be less and less need for a powerful desktop PC. Of course, there are still some things out there that do require significant on-site computing power, but this seems less and less common.
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What are the main advantages/disadvantages of a hybrid cloud model vs. the public cloud?

Posted February 8, 2012 - 5:41 pm

My company is looking at a hybrid cloud deployment as an interim (and potentially permanent) alternative to completely moving to a public cloud model. What are the main advantages or disadvantages to choosing the hybrid cloud path?
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How much will Cloud Security Alliance's STAR program do to increase transparency of cloud security?

Posted February 1, 2012 - 5:59 pm

It is difficult to really evaluate the security practices of different cloud providers. For the most part, you just have to take them at their word.
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What do you think about Amazon's Storage Gateway for data backup?

Posted January 27, 2012 - 1:07 pm

This week saw release of the beta version of Amazon's Storage Gateway, which automatically mirrors local data and backs it up in Amazon's could.
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Will the action against Megaupload harm the cloud storage model?

Posted January 26, 2012 - 4:05 pm

When Megaupload was shut down, it not only affected potentially illegal data, but also the completely legal files of users who had nothing to do with copyrighted material which may have been lost forever. Is this event going to cause serious damage to the acceptance of cloud storage and cloud providers?
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Question

What are the major changes with Microsoft's new System Center 2012?

Posted January 20, 2012 - 1:11 pm

The new version of System Center has been unveiled by Microsoft. What are the biggest changes that will impact users with this new release?
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