Virtualization Magazine

Despite my shaky prediction performance in 2011, I'm going to try again. Last year, my best predictions were based on some sort of specialized knowledge or insight, and the worst came from looking into the macro environment and making guesses. So, this year's predictions emphasize the former approach, yet hopefully avoid sounding like claims such as "the market will fluctuate." 1. 2012 will be the Year of the Storefront in the cloud. Admittedly, this is a somewhat self-serving prediction, since Standing Cloud is (among other things) a storefront. But based on the variety of offerings, rumors, customer behaviors, and other sources I have, it seems that the confluence of forces that helped drive the popularity of App Stores in the mobile world are now propelling the storefront concept ahead in the cloud world. Viewed through a relatively simple lens, a Storefront has ... (more)

Unstructured Big Data Storage in the Cloud

"We actually talk about big unstructured data now, unstructured data of files - documents, movies, pictures, music files - and these files are being generated in equally large volume and are creating problems for file systems. We have created an optic storage system that allows you to create a storage infrastructure," states Tom Leyden, Director of Alliances and Marketing at Amplidata, in this SYS-CON.TV interview with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan at the 9th International Cloud Expo, held Nov 7-10, 2011, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. A Ro... (more)

Creating a Private PaaS

"We have a new cloud product - Stackato - a cloud platform for creating your own private PaaS. We're all about the development, management, and distribution of solutions for software applications and it was a natural extension for us to get into cloud deployment," states Bart Copeland, President and CEO of ActiveState, in this SYS-CON.TV interview with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan at the 9th International Cloud Expo, held Nov 7-10, 2011, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. A Rock Star Faculty, Top Keynotes, Sessions, and Top Delegates! Cloud Expo... (more)

Contracting for Agile Project Outsourcing

Irrespective of what the Agile Manifesto says (“Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation”) we do require a signed contract for ANY medium to large software outsourcing engagements – and that includes agile projects. Why? Because when there is a commercial arrangement between two parties for delivery of any service where a significant amount of financial transaction is involved, there needs to be a clear agreement on: What is the service that is going to be delivered and what will be the charges for those services? What happens when things go wrong? Do's and Don’ts of how ... (more)

Data Virtualization Adoption Propelled by Significant Business Benefits

Enterprise adoption of data virtualization accelerated in 2011 propelled by organizations growing need for greater business agility, lower costs and better performance. These benefits were fully described in an earlier series of articles: The Agile Business - Why Data Virtualization Is Needed How Data Virtualization Delivers Business Agility - Part 1 How Data Virtualization Improves Business Agility - Part 2 How Data Virtualization Improves Business Agility - Part 3 The success of data virtualization can now be observed across hundreds of organizations and is clearly evident in t... (more)