Bob Warfield's Blog Cisco is planning to start building servers. To be precise, servers equipped with virtualization software. A fascinating article in the New York Times expresses some surprise at this move, but it seems terribly obvious now that the news is out. After all, there is already a move afoot to create Cloud Servers. These are stripped down machines best suited to doing nothing but being the commoditized ubiquitous guts of some massive Cloud data center where there will be thousands of them. The emphasis will be on reliability and cost efficiency. I’ve likened the advantages of such highly standard machines to the business advantage Southwest Airlines gets by standardizing all of their aircraft as 737’s.  Companies like Google have already seen the light and taken these steps. When you look at a server not as a complex machine optimized for maximum perfo... (more)

My Personal 2010 Predictions

New Year 2010 on Ulitzer In an effort to save a lot of pain and suffering for those people who don’t want to read an incredibly long blog post, I have a nice little summary table.  The predictions run the gamut of my personal and professional interests, so they may not be 100% interesting to all people. 99% of All Decade Lists That Come This Year Will Be Wrong Twitter Will Become A Footnote Real Time Has Had It’s Time Interest Rates Will Begin To Rise Housing Prices Being To Stall And Then Fall Jorge Lorenzo Will Win MotoGP World Championship Netbook Market Disappears Apple’s Disdain For Developers Will Reach A Tipping Point ChromeOS Proves To Be Another Of Google’s Failures The Final Season Of Lost Will Not Be Seen Foundations For The Repeal Of Sarb-Ox The Venture Business, As We Know It, Is Dead Oil Trading Draws Legislative Scrutiny Windows Mobile 7 Will Impress ... (more)

Industry Experts Discuss the State of Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing Expo on Ulitzer "With cloud computing, price to deploy applications goes through the floor while flexibility to scale those applications goes through the ceiling!" says WaveMaker CEO Chris Keene, in this lively round-up of CEO and CTO opinions to get a sense of The State of Cloud Computing compiled and published by Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. 4th International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo is taking place this week at the Santa Clara Convention Center (November 2-4, 2009). Keene's take on what's driving Cloud Computing enterprise-wise is just one of several high-profile contributions. Those contributing to Geelan's impromptu survey include: RightScale CEO Michael Crandell; the Chairman & CEO of WaveMaker, Chris Keene; the CTO of GigaSpaces, Nati Shalom; Lew Cirne, Founder & CEO of New Relic; Mitchell Kertzman of Hummer Winblad Venture Partne... (more)

In the Rush to the Cloud, Don’t Forget About Data Governance

Cloud computing has become an integrated part of IT strategy for companies in every sector of our economy. By 2012, IDC predicts that IT spending on cloud services will grow almost threefold to $42 billion. So it's no surprise that decision makers no longer wonder "if" they can benefit from cloud computing. Instead, the question being asked now is "how" best to leverage the cloud while keeping data and systems secure. Data governance and compliance issues are typically the same whether information is in a private or public cloud environment or on-premise. That said, when organizations are considering moving business data to the cloud, a sound data governance approach must be in place to avoid costly data protection mistakes. At the heart of a sound data governance strategy is ensuring that only the right users have access to the right data at all times. While the... (more)

Is Carol Bartz Yahoo’s Messiah?

The Wall Street Journal thinks that this might be the week Yahoo finally names its long overdue replacement for CEO Jerry Yang and the latest name to surface as a possible is that of Autodesk executive chairman and former CEO Carol Bartz, a veteran of Sun and DEC and, like Steve Jobs, a cancer survivor. Her name was first bruited last week by AllThingsDigital, the Dow Jones blog that owns the Yahoo story, and repeated again by the Journal. Bartz, 60, knows how to grow a software company - when she took over Autodesk in 1992 it was a $250 million company and left it two years ago a $1.25 billion company - but she has little experience of either advertising or the web. It is also unclear whether she wants the job. Yahoo, like Novell before Eric Schmidt, has a long list of people like ex-Vodefone CEO Arun Sarin who've said no and may have to fall back on an internal cand... (more)

A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing: New Report

Founded through the generous support of Google, Microsoft and Sun, UC Berkeley's RAD Lab has released "A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing" - a technical report arguing that the construction and operation of extremely large-scale, commodity-computer data centers at low-cost locations was the key necessary enabler of Cloud Computing, and outlining ten obstacles including Data Confidentiality and Auditability, Bugs in Large-Scale Distributed Systems, and what the report calls Reputation Fate Sharing. "The long dreamed vision of computing as a utility is finally emerging," the report nonetheless concludes. Among the remarks in the Executive Summary is the observation that' "companies with large batch-oriented tasks can get results as quickly as their programs can scale, since using 1000 servers for one hour costs no more than using one server for 1000 hours." Other forthr... (more)

The Next Chapter in the Virtualization Story Begins

Cloud Expo Europe €550 Savings here! Cloud Expo West $800 Savings here! Cloud Computing Journal recently caught up with Pete Malcolm, CEO of cloud management innovators Abiquo - a major new player in the fast-emerging Cloud ecosystem and Platinum Plus Sponsor of 6th Cloud Expo being held in Prague, the Czech Republic, 21-22 June 2010. Malcolm is keynoting at the event. His theme will be "An Open Cloud Ecosystem - the Gathering Storm." Explore Cloud Expo Sponsorship & Exhibit Opportunities ! Abiquo was also Platinum Plus Sponsor of the 5th International Cloud Expo held April 19-21, 2010 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City Cloud Computing Journal: How would you define the difference between Private clouds and Public Clouds, and why is the distinction so important in the context of Cloud Computing? Pete Malcolm: Actually, I think people get rather too hun... (more)

Cloud Expo 2011 New York Expands Technical Program

Due to a record increase in the number, quality and breadth of submissions to the Conference Advisory Board, the organizers of 8th Cloud Expo (June 6-9, 2011) - Cloud Expo New York 2011 - have extended the technical program through the addition of an all-new "Telcos in the Cloud" track - to complement the already extensive selection of tracks, including "Enterprise-Level Cloud Computing," "Federal/Government Cloud Computing," "Real-World Virtualization,"Cloud Security & Performance," "The Cloud in Practice: Case Studies," and the always-popular "Hot Topics" track. Because the sheer quantity and quality of submitted sessions has outstripped the ability to assess each one fully and fairly - there have been a staggering 1,300 submissions thus far, for just 150 or so slots - the deadline for submitting speaking proposals to the conference is also being extended too, unt... (more)

The Top 100 Bloggers on Cloud Computing

Ever since I first published here my tentative list of Top 50 Bloggers on Cloud Computing it became clear that an expansion would be needed before too long. Thanks to community feedback via my Twitter account (http://twitter.com/jg21) here goes - just three months before Cloud Expo Silicon Valley (November 7-10) - with an expanded roster, listed as before in alphabetical order since I am making no attempt at this stage to rank the various blogs, merely to map - and celebrate - their existence. Dustin Amrhein | "A View from the Clouds" Dave Asprey | "Cloudy Words" Ian Bergin | "Clouded Issues" Randy Bias | "Cloudscaling" Rick Blaisdell | "Rickscloud" Steve Bobrowski | "The Cloud View" Rene Buest | www.CloudUser.de Larry Carvalho | "Robust Cloud" Andrew M. Chapman | "MemorableURL.com" Sam Charrington | "Cloud Pulse" Colin Clark | "Cloud Event Processing" Peter Coffee | cloudb... (more)

Cloud Expo New York Speaker Profile: Mårten Mickos – Eucalyptus Systems

With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) now just one week away, what better time to remind you in greater detail of the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference... We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from June 11 through June 14 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else have they written and/or said about the Cloud that is transforming the world of Enterprise IT, side by side with the exploding use of enterprise Big Data – processed in the Cloud – to drive value for businesses...? CLOUD EXPO SPEAKER NAME: Mårten Mickos TWITTER: @martenmickos COMPANY: Eucalyptus Systems 10TH CLOUD EXPO SESSION TITLE: Clouds Are All About APIs SESSION DESCRIPTION: http://cloud... (more)

Frugal and Agile DevOps | @DevOpsSummit [#DevOps]

Frugal and Agile DevOps - the Cloud Computing Advantage Accomplish much more, very rapidly, while spending less -- this is the business technology trend that savvy executives everywhere have embraced. Worldwide IT spending will reach a total $3.7 trillion in 2014, that's a 2.1 percent increase from last year, according to the latest global market study by Gartner. This forecast, however, is down from their earlier projections of 3.2 percent growth. What's driving the ongoing transition to lower business technology spending? The slower outlook for 2014 is attributed to a reduction in growth expectations for end-user devices, data center systems and IT related services. Moreover, the typical IT investment is evolving. It's transitioning from a legacy focus on technology and processes, to a focus on new business models and associated strategic outcomes that are purposef... (more)