Ever since I first published here my tentative list of Top Players in the Cloud Computing Ecosystem - now expanded to a list of 250 and growing daily thanks to community feedback via my Twitter account (@jg21) and a very kind mention by ReadWriteWeb - there have been suggestions that another prism through which to view cloud computing might be that of people rather than companies. Now Michael Sheehan has encouraged me to Just Do It, so let me get started...as per the previous Top Cloud Players list, this list will a work-in-progress and is totally porous, so don't hesitate to ping or tweet me if there are folks I have missed. In particular if you are a journalist whose "beat" is Cloud Computing, please let's be hearing from you, and we can maybe widen this list from Cloud Bloggers to Cloud Commentators. For now though let's get started. In alphabetical order - to avoi... (more)

HP Keeps Ticking Despite Loss of Hurd

HP's performance in the October quarter under its interim CEO, CFO Cathie Lesjak, was slightly better than Wall Street thought it would be. Lesjak had to step in after Mark Hurd was forced to resign on August 6. The results have nothing to do with Hurd's permanent replacement, the subpoena-dodging Léo Apotheker, who didn't officially pick up the reins until November 1, the beginning of the company's new fiscal year and the day the Oracle v SAP trial started. Oracle wanted the ex-SAP CEO for a witness but Apotheker stayed beyond the reach of Oracle's process servers these last th... (more)

Giving Thanks for the Hackers, Crackers and Thieves

This holiday season, give your friendly neighborhood hacker (black or white hatted) a nice pat on the back.  ‘Why?’ you may ask.  ‘Aren’t they responsible for the nasty botnets, malware, SQL injections, stolen identities, government infiltration, Stuxnet, and all the malicious things you warn against in this very blog?’  Yes, but over the years it’s been the very same folks attempting to and successfully gaining access to systems to infect, steal, snoop and causing general havoc that have made security better.  All the new variants of worms, viruses, trojans or the all encompas... (more)

Top Cloud Computing Data Security Products

In an environment where the IT organizations, on the one hand, face resource constraints and on the other hand, have to meet growing business needs, they have to look newer and cost effective methods of computing and cloud computing aims to achieve these aims by balancing the conflicts between scarce resources and increased service needs. In simple terms, cloud computing enables reduction of IT infrastructure costs while at the same keeping in mind complex security needs of the users. This article discusses a few best-rated data security products. In order to be best, they should... (more)

Léo’s Revenge

HP is reportedly getting ready to trade in its more sophisticated Oracle Siebel customer relationship management (CRM) system for a subscription to 35,000 or 40,000 seats worth of Salesforce.com's simpler high-flying CRM cloud widgetry, a major victory for salesforce. At least that's what Global Equities Research analyst Trip Crowdry is telling people citing industry contacts and HP insiders suggest it's true. The move is supposed to save HP 40%-50% off what it's paying Oracle, which is reportedly fit to be tied although it can hardly expect better treatment after weeks of callin... (more)