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 av... (more)

Commercial vs Federal Cloud Computing

Government Cloud Computing on Ulitzer Frank Gens of IDC recently provided an excellent overview of the the new "Cloud Computing Era". His description of "cloud computing" and "cloud services" really highlights the difference between the commercial cloud computing market and the Federal cloud computing market. (Paraphrased from Frank Gens' article) When people talk about “cloud computing”, they are usually referring to things like software-as-a-service (SaaS) and storage or server capacity as a service. They may also talk about the many “non-IT” business and consumer services like shopping, banking, selling, collaborating, communicating and being entertained. In reality, these things represent an on-line delivery and consumption model for business and consumer services. These users are not explicitly buying “cloud computing,” but the “cloud services” that are enabled b... (more)

The American Dream Is Alive with Cloud Computing

Adaptivity Keynote at Cloud Expo New York The principles and freedoms of the American dream are finding themselves resurrected again with cloud computing. The following blog will outline background, details and living proof that cloud computing is one of the catalysts of the future that will bring the American dream back! As an immigrant and soon to be citizen of the United States of America, I have experienced first hand and continue to experience the greatness of this country and rewards of the American dream.  My belief system of hard work combined with the principle that "business is differentiated through IT" has led to an amazing journey over the last several years living in the United States.  I come from humble beginnings of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.  My life and career has been influenced by both IT and business.  I have been blessed to live and wor... (more)

[Update 2] WikiLeaks & Web 3.0 - A Commentary

[Further updated to include advance word of Jay Rosen/Dave Winer "Rebooting the Media" podcast - #75 coming Monday Dec 6] [Updated to include PayPal announcement of the closure of WikiLeaks' PayPal account.] Is Web 3.0 maybe going to be less the utopia we've been envisaging and more like the real, physical world, with all the real-world limitations that follow along with it...? The latest WikiLeaks ("Cablegate") affair, coming as it does at the very end of the first decade of the 21st Century, comes at an appropriate moment. An undoubted political and diplomatic hornet's nest, the swirling discussions surrounding the organization's drip-drip release of (so far) 612 of the quarter of a million or so diplomatic cables in its possession are all grist to the mill of an "awakening" that in my view is likely going to mark the difference between the Web of 2000-1010 and that... (more)

Forget Iceland - OSG is off to Galt's Gulch

Ok, so I was right and the loonies were wrong. $750B didn't do diddly. The S&P; is one-half of its high 18 months ago, and headed further down today. Unemployment at 8.1% is the highest in decades, but the new treasury secretary can't find anyone who wants a job working for him. Congress is drunk-dipping our collective ATM cards, the president is partying hardy at the white house every night, the US is on its way a People State, and Atlas is damn close to shrugging. For goodness sake, what are we doing? 8570 earmarks-do you think that's ok? Do you seriously think that increasing taxes on people who create value, and then spending it on pork barrel projects, unemployment benefits, and welfare, will lower the deficit and increase employment? Do you honestly think nationalizing banks will make people invest in them? Do you think taking away the fear of failure and the benefit... (more)

DoD's Mark Krzysko to Speak at 1st Annual GovIT Expo

February 29, 2008 marked the start of change in the Department of Defense's management of its Major Defense Acquisition Program (MDAP) portfolio. On that day, authoritative Earned Value Management and Unit Cost information was available, on demand, to support DoD Secretariat decision making on 12 MDAPs totaling $103B. Today, the capability provides broader cost, schedule, and performance information for 37 MDAPs totaling $1.2T. "This effort combines Departmental and data governance with SOA to improve the timeliness and authoritativeness of critical program oversight data, which permits continued operation of stakeholders' own business systems, while standardizing the available data and external interfaces," says Mark Krzysko, who serves as the Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (ADUSD) for Business Transformation and will be presenting a case Study on th... (more)

CIA Falls for Cloud Computing in a Big Way

Cloud Computing Expo on Ulitzer The most anticipated talk of the day yesterday, at the 4th International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo, was by the deputy CIO of the CIA, Jill Singer. Her talk was entitled, "Enterprise Cloud Computing, the Infrastructure’s Final Revenge." She acknowledged the problem with defining Cloud Computing, and then went on to give her paragraph-length definition of “the cloud”. Her talk focused on the part of the Cloud behind the firewall. “Today’s CIO must increase the flexibility of the infrastructure,” said Singer. “Today’s CIO must manage cost to free dollars for [other purposes] …and work to improve the competitiveness of the larger organization.” “Faster, Better, Cheaper, and Safer” was the overall theme of her talk, and she pointed out that the good CIO should be able to get all four out of a cloud computing environment. She t... (more)

ZOLL Medical Corporation Announces Third Quarter Results

ZOLL Medical Corporation (Nasdaq GS: ZOLL), a manufacturer of resuscitation devices and software solutions, today announced that revenues for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 were $95,147,000, compared to revenues in the third quarter of last year of $100,244,000, a decline of 5%. Revenue results reflected a negative foreign exchange impact of nearly $3 million, compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2008. The results include approximately $2 million of revenue derived from our newly acquired temperature management business, whose assets were acquired from Alsius Corporation in May 2009. Net income for the quarter was $1,490,000, compared to $5,744,000 for the prior-year quarter. Diluted earnings per share were $0.07, compared to $0.27 in the prior-year quarter. Backlog at the end of the third quarter was approximately $9.8 million. Third quarter sales to the Nort... (more)

CDW Corporation Announces Proposed Private Offering of Additional Senior Notes

CDW Corporation, a leading provider of technology solutions for business, government, education and healthcare, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiaries CDW LLC and CDW Finance Corporation (together, the “Issuers”), intend to offer, subject to market and other customary conditions, $130,000,000 in aggregate principal amount of 8.5% senior notes due 2019 (the “Notes”) in a private offering that is exempt from registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). The Notes are being issued as additional 8.5% senior notes due 2019 under the indenture dated as of April 13, 2011. Upon the closing of the offering, the Issuers intend to use the net proceeds from the offering, together with cash on hand and/or borrowings under their revolving credit facility, to pay the consideration in a planned concurrent tender offer and consent sol... (more)

Riverbed to Demonstrate IT Performance Solutions at TechNet Land Forces Southwest Conference

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 03/27/12 -- Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ: RVBD), the performance company, today announced its participation at the TechNet Land Forces Southwest Conference -- Network Security and Operations, taking place March 27-29 at the Tucson Convention Center in Tucson, AZ. The TechNet Land Forces Conference, formerly known as LandWarNet, is the premier forum for land-based armed services, such as the Army and Marine Corps, to openly converse about IT solutions, best practices, and defense initiatives. The Riverbed® performance platform is leveraged by government and defense agencies to analyze, accelerate and control the performance of applications across the wide area network (WAN), including satellite communications. Organizations worldwide are using the Riverbed performance platform, a broad suite of performance solutions, spanning WAN op... (more)

CGI granted FedRAMP(SM) security authorization to deliver U.S. government-wide cloud services

FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/05/13 -- CGI Federal Inc. (CGI), a wholly-owned U.S. operating subsidiary of CGI Group Inc. (NYSE:GIB)(TSX:GIB.A), today announced it has been granted a cloud security Provisional Authority to Operate (P-ATO) by the Joint Authorization Board (JAB) of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP(SM)). FedRAMP is a U.S. government-wide program that standardizes the approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. The JAB comprises the Chief Information Officers of the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security and the General Services Administration (GSA) who lead the management of the program with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. FedRAMP uses a "do once, use many times" framework that is expected to reduce government's cost, time, ... (more)