http://saas.sys-con.com/ Latest articles from Cloud Computing Feature Copyright 2008 CLOUD COMPUTING JOURNAL Sun, 27 Jul 2008 04:34:00 GMT CLOUD COMPUTING JOURNAL 10 http://backend.userland.com/rss http://saas.sys-con.com/read/614371.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/614371.htm Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:30:00 GMT There hasn't been a PowerPC-based computer since Apple abandoned the dingus and bolted to Intel, a move that did wonders for Apple's volumes. Now a Mountain View start-up called CherryPal is about to introduce a $249 Debian-based desktop that's about the size of a dime store paperback built around the 2W MPC5121e mobileGT PowerPC chip that Freescale usually sells to Detroit for navigation devices. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/618924.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/618924.htm Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:15:00 GMT With Microsoft mandarin Kevin Johnson bolting to Jupiter, leaving Microsoft to lick its wounds over Yahoo and reorganize, CEO Steve Ballmer sent out an all-hands e-mail to Microsoft folk encapsulating the message he delivered to financial analysts gathering in Redmond Thursday. Ballmer highlighted software-plus-service, associating it with a 'platform in the cloud and delivering applications across PCs, phones, TVs, and other devices, at work and in the home' (Microsoft's Mesh widgetry) and promised 'more about our cloud platform initiatives and the next versions of our Live and Online technologies' at the company?s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) at the end of October. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/619258.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/619258.htm Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:30:00 GMT Application server management software developer NGASI has introduced a hosted version of its AppServer Manager on Amazon EC2. The 'no installation required' service gives Amazon EC2 users the option of not installing their own version of NGASI AppServer Manager to manage application servers. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/619237.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/619237.htm Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:15:00 GMT One of the problems with clouds is that they have this tendency to rain as it did on Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3) on Sunday when it was down - and not for the first time - in both the US and Europe for something like eight hours - translating into less than 2Nines availability in a month (not a year, a month). Users couldn't access their stored data - a particularly scary situation for a cloud-dependent business. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/589951.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/589951.htm Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:15:00 GMT Regardless of the downturn in the markets, Morgan Stanley is on track to spend more than ever on their IT budget. They seem to think that during periods of lower economic activity it gives them a rare opportunity to establish themselves in new areas of emerging technology that may give them a competitive advantage down the road. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/607253.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/607253.htm Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:15:00 GMT Recently I've been asked about the benefits of cloud computing in comparison to that of virtualization. Generally my answer has been they are an ideal match. For the most part virtualization has been about doing more with less (consolidation). VMware in particular positioned their products and pricing in a way that encourages you to use the least amount of servers possible. The interesting thing about cloud computing is it's about doing more with more. Or if you're Intel, doing more with Moore. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/607264.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/607264.htm Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:15:00 GMT As the cloud-o-sphere tries to define this 'cloud' thing, myself included, it seems like the list of who is a cloud just keeps getting longer and longer. I originally thought the Forrester 11 list was a little to long when it included SalesForce.com and Akamai as cloud providers. The general consensus seems to be, if you are a SaaS, PaaS, or a IaaS you are probably a cloud and this makes the list even longer. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/592855.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/592855.htm Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:00:00 GMT I was chatting with a customer the other day who was struggling with some of the implications of cloud computing. The analogy that finally made sense to them is what I will call 'cloud dining.' I am the cook in the house and I am tasked with feeding the family. If my 10-year old is lobbying for Italian, I can cook at home or order out. The decision may also vary from day to day. For instance, I might not have all the ingredients and have to order out, or, like this weekend, it may be 103 outside and cooking at home is not all that appealing. Now, the same can be said for supporting a given application in a cloud computing environment. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/608763.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/608763.htm Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:00:00 GMT Just as people begin to understand the difference between web ops and IT, we are entering a period where clouds promise 'Ops-Free' computing. Because it's easy, scalable, available and disposable, the cloud is well on its way to becoming 'technology's next big thing.' However, with recent outages from Amazon and Google Apps, the question of the cloud's competence, security and reliability have come into play. In this session, Hyperic's CEO, Javier Soltero will address these issues along with the many others surrounding the cloud including: The emergence of web operations as a discipline, How cloud computing simply changes, instead of eliminating the importance of web operations, What tools are available to help better manage cloud environments? http://saas.sys-con.com/read/587551.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/587551.htm Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:45:00 GMT Cloud Computing offers significant benefits over traditional solutions for deploying production systems as well as for conducting development and testing activities. Dr Thorsten von Eicken, CTO of RightScale, Inc., will be giving a session at SYS-CON's 'Cloud Computing Expo' (November 20-21, 2008) - an adjunct to the 4th International Virtualization Conference & Expo being held at The Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, CA. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/600668.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/600668.htm Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:45:00 GMT With the stock market crashing, or giving a good approximation of a crash Thursday, Yahoo, poor thing - well, it has behaved like a sick lost puppy, now hasn't it - announced a supposedly pressure-relieving reorganization just like its familiars in the press said it would. It is, as was widely observed, the company's third or fourth attempt in the last 18 months or so - one loses count after a while - to rearrange the deck chairs and supposedly prove it can stay afloat with Microsoft out of the picture. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/590421.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/590421.htm Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:30:00 GMT Cloud Computing, in its current incarnation, falls short on its promise to make computing as a whole as simple as plugging an application into a utility service. Kirill Sheynkman, Founder & CEO of Elastra Corporation, will be giving a session on Elastic Computing vs. Cloud Computing at SYS-CON's 'Cloud Computing Expo' (November 20-21, 2008) - a brand new adjunct to the 4th International Virtualization Conference & Expo being held at The Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, CA. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/588466.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/588466.htm Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:30:00 GMT The demand for storage has increased exponentially, placing significant stress on current 'in house' storage architectures and costly overcapacity build-outs. Patrick Harr, CEO of Nirvanix, will be giving a session at SYS-CON's 'Cloud Computing Expo' (November 20-21, 2008) - a brand new adjunct to the 4th International Virtualization Conference & Expo being held at The Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, CA. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/618592.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/618592.htm Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:30:00 GMT Microsoft Corp. expects a 'substantial portion' of revenue from its core business services division to come from online applications in the next few years, the new head of that division, Stephen Elop, said Wednesday. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/609872.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/609872.htm Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:30:00 GMT The world's first journal devoted to the delivery of massively scalable IT resources as a service has been launched by SYS-CON Media, the latest in a series of leading-edge additions to its 25-plus stable of online and print publications such as Web 2.0 Journal, AJAX & RIA Journal, Open Web Developer's Journal, and iPhone Developer's Journal. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/612033.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/612033.htm Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:15:00 GMT Every time I log into Facebook, or search for flights online, I am taking advantage of cloud computing. However, neither of these examples would be considered SaaS. According to Gartner, cloud computing is not just a buzzword; it does have a distinct meaning separate from SaaS. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/612853.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/612853.htm Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:15:00 GMT GigaSpaces Technologies and CohesiveFT announced their partnership to enable simplicity in building scalable applications in cloud environments. GigaSpaces' recently announced cloud application server, combined with CohesiveFT's Elastic Server On-Demand, allows customers to build software stacks and deploy them on multiple cloud providers with just a few clicks. The joint solution handles partitioning, load-balancing and fail-over, while CohesiveFT makes it easy to bundle these applications with software stacks and deploy them on many cloud infrastructures. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/558455.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/558455.htm Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:30:00 GMT As a technology provider that helps application companies embrace cloud computing by virtualizing the applications to run on any cloud, I was a bit disappointed with Google's AppEngine announcement. It appears that Google is embracing the 'walled garden' approach of SalesForce.com and Microsoft instead of the cloud approach of Amazon. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/614373.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/614373.htm Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:15:00 GMT Amazon has kicked into Engine Yard's $15 million Series B round along with Benchmark Capital and New Enterprise Associates. The two-year-old 70-man open source company provides a deployment infrastructure, services and support for developers to take their Ruby and Rails applications to the cloud. The money should underwrite its anticipated cloud computing cluster platform and expand its business. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/614536.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/614536.htm Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:45:00 GMT About a month and a half ago HP created a Scalable Computing and Infrastructure Organization (SCIO) out of a stealth Web 2.0 group that it's had under the covers for the last year, year-and-a-half and its HPC unit along with its cloud intentions. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/584958.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/584958.htm Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:30:00 GMT There seems to be a lot of debate as to what Grid computing really is. In fact, the blogosphere seems to be throwing around terms like Grid, Cloud, Utility, Distributed and Cluster computing almost interchangeably. And rather than clarifying things, I feel that the waters are just getting muddier. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/579826.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/579826.htm Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:30:00 GMT Cloud computing is becoming one of the next industry buzz words. It joins the ranks of terms including: grid computing, utility computing, virtualization, clustering, etc. Cloud computing overlaps some of the concepts of distributed, grid and utility computing, however it does have its own meaning if contextually used correctly. The conceptual overlap is partly due to technology changes, usages and implementations over the years. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/612375.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/612375.htm Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:15:00 GMT It is the infrastructural paradigm shift that is sweeping across the Enterprise IT world, but how is it best defined? I refer of course to 'Cloud Computing' - the phenomenon that has as many definitions as there are squares on a chess-board. To try and narrow it down we bring here a round-up of some recent attempts to bring welcome precision where there risks being unnecessary vagueness. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/609938.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/609938.htm Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:45:00 GMT The term 'Cloud Computing' is much too vague. People want and need 'slots' or 'segments' where they can group things. This is how the mind operates through categorization and ordering. So, to possibly help with this, I would like to propose a 'Cloud Pyramid' to help differentiate the various Cloud offerings out there. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/612854.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/612854.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT We all take for granted that our online applications at home will perform the instant we need them. Whether it's Voice over IP, video on-demand, gaming, or other applications, we have instantaneous, high-speed access, anytime. In this environment, IT managers are now facing the question: 'Why can't you deliver the same quality of service at work that I experience at home?' http://saas.sys-con.com/read/580409.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/580409.htm Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:30:00 GMT When picturing the relationship between the enterprise and the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model, imagine an evolutionary process that can be divided into three main stages: 'The Comfort Zone,' 'The Enlightenment,' and 'The Re-Assessment.' Once we examine these, we can then decide on the right course of action when choosing how to adapt to the IT demands of the enterprise. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/536976.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/536976.htm Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:15:00 GMT The mouse was the original idea of Doug Engelbart who was the head of the Augmentation Research Center (ARC) at Stanford Research Institute. Engelbart's philosophy is best embodied, in my opinion, in the design of another device that he invented, the five-finger keyboard - with keys like a piano, used by one hand. The problem was, Engelbart's five-finger keyboard and mouse combination was very difficult to learn. http://saas.sys-con.com/read/467329.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/467329.htm Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:15:00 GMT The advent of SOA and standard-base Web services together with Internet based delivery models has provided the essential base for facilitating new software platform innovations. One of these innovations is a breakthrough software componentization technique that we have coined Service Oriented Programming (SOP). While SOA focuses on communication between systems using 'service operations,' SOP provides a new technique to build agile application modules using in-process, native service operations as the 'units of assembly.' http://saas.sys-con.com/read/458183.htmhttp://saas.sys-con.com/read/458183.htm Fri, 09 Nov 2007 08:30:00 GMT Many articles have already been written about service-oriented architecture (SOA) and Service Component Architecture (SCA), for example, see references [1] and [2]. In this article we'll focus on a freely available, open source implementation of the Service Component Architecture that provides a simple way to implement SOA solutions. This SCA implementation is being developed in the Apache Tuscany Incubator project. The project started in 2006 and is being used by many who are looking for a simple SOA infrastructure. The recent Tuscany SCA version 1.0, which was released in September 2007, supports the Service Component Architecture specifications 1.0.