In the run-up to the next Cloud Expo, 7th Cloud Expo (November 1–4, 2010) being held at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley, it's time to give my earlier list a complete overhaul. Here, accordingly, is an expanded list of the most active players in the Cloud Ecosystem. I have increased it from the 'mere' 150 I identified back in January of this year, to 250, testimony – as if any were needed! – to the fierce and continuing growth of the "Elastic IT" paradigm throughout the world of enterprise computing. Editorial note: The words in quotation marks used to describe the various services and solutions in this round-up are in every case taken from the Web sites of the companies themselves. Omissions to this Top 250 list should be sent to me via Twitter (twitter.com/jg21) and I will endeavor to include them in any future revision of this newly expanded rou... (more)

Jared Richardson on Career 2.0

In 2007, Scott Davis led one of the best NoFluffJustStuff keynote presentations I have attended. It was an amazing collection of technology wisdom, history and insight similar to watching episodes of Alton Brown in Good Eats, but about hardware and software. I remember frantically writing down all of the books, terms and references from his presentation. I followed up on those references to learn more. Scott's sense of humor is excellent and he is one of my favorite presenters. Last night, Jared Richardson stood in front of a couple of hundred well-fed geeks at the Columbus NoFluffJustStuff event and gave us a snapshot of work he has been doing career 2.0 (click here to read more). It's wisdom, not just for computer programmers, but applicable in any field where there are specializations. He dropped a few ideas, only a few of which I will note. You want options in you... (more)

David Versus Goliath in Open-source Cloud Computing: The OpenNebula Recipe for Success

Now that OpenNebula has been listed by GigaOM on the list of main reasons why Europe really matters to cloud computing, I am receiving several emails asking about how OpenNebula is able, what’s its "secret recipe", to compete with other open-source projects, like OpenStack, CloudStack or Eucalyptus, backed by strong IT vendors and with wide media presence. Here are some of its ingredients, mix them into a single product: A vibrant and engaged community. Many people and organizations contribute in different ways to the project, from the expertise and dedication of our core committers and hundreds of contributors to the valuable feedback of our thousands of users. The power of user-driven development. OpenNebula's roadmap is completely driven by users needs with features that meet real demands, and not features that result from an agreement between IT vendors planning... (more)

Skyscape Cloud Services Limited is Awarded the G-Cloud ii Framework Agreement

Providing Assured Cloud Services to the UK Public Sector London - October 26th 2012 - Skyscape Cloud Services Limited, the easy to adopt, easy to use and easy to leave Assured Cloud Services Company, today announced that it has been awarded a G-Cloud ii Framework from Government Procurement Service, an Executive Agency of the Cabinet Office. This framework agreement will allow Skyscape to continue to supply a wide and expanding range of Cloud Services to the UK Public Sector, who will in turn benefit from lower costs, reduced procurement times, a simplified tendering process and a genuinely open and competitive marketplace. "The G-Cloud Programme and Framework has already demonstrated that the UK public sector can transform the way that it does business with its ICT supply community. Our customers enjoy secure and robust services, significantly reduced costs and deli... (more)

Protecode Announces Release 3.0 of Its Software Lifecycle IP Management Portfolio

OTTAWA and PARIS -- (Marketwire) -- 09/29/09 -- Protecode®, Inc. today launched Release 3.0 of its Software Lifecycle IP Management solutions, enabling organizations to safely adopt and utilize the most appropriate open source software for their projects. Protecode's software portfolio covers the spectrum of activities necessary to ensure proper software governance and legal compliance with licensing obligations. Protecode's Software Lifecycle IP Management tools are easy to install, use and maintain, ensuring secure operation and offering accurate and flexible IP licensing reporting options. "Worldwide availability and use of open source software has reduced software development times and costs significantly, while creating a need for efficient tools that streamline open source software adoption and help manage complex sourcing," says Melinda Ballou, program directo... (more)

Timesys Delivers a Comprehensive, Low-cost Linux Solution for Altera's Nios II Embedded Processor

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Timesys® Corporation (http://www.timesys.com), provider of LinuxLink, the first commercial software development framework for building custom embedded Linux® based products, today announced the availability of a suite of Linux products and services supporting Altera Corporation's Nios® II embedded processor. The Timesys LinuxLink software development framework gives Nios II processor users access to a low-cost, intuitive environment for developing a wide range of Linux-based products. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090515/NE17461LOGO ) LinuxLink allows customers to accelerate their product development by providing access to hundreds of open-source middleware packages, making it simple and easy to create footprint-optimized Linux platforms with a rich set of APIs well matched to their end applications. Develop... (more)

EnterpriseDB Receives High Marks from AQA

WESTFORD, Mass., Dec. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- EnterpriseDB, the enterprise Postgres company, today announced that the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), the UK's largest examination board, has selected and deployed Postgres Plus Advanced Server to create a business-critical extranet application. Utilizing Postgres Plus as the database solution for its 'Examiner Extranet,' AQA empowers its users with reliable, real-time access to core business data in a secure and highly cost-effective manner, ultimately saving the non-profit organization valuable capital and ongoing operational expenses. AQA is a registered non-profit charitable organization that provides services to teachers, examiners, moderators and students. It has more than 1,000 permanent staff and over 35,000 teachers, lecturers, advisers and consultants who assist in setting and marking exams for... (more)

Mentor Graphics Moves BridgePoint UML Editor to Open Source Domain

Mentor Graphics Corp. (NASDAQ:MENT) announced its intention to place the front-end UML editor of its powerful BridgePoint™ xtUML environment into the open source domain. This action is intended to provide the system design community with broader access to comprehensive UML editing capabilities, encouraging advancement to powerful executable and translatable model-driven development. UML entry provides a starting point for model-driven flows, which dramatically improve a company’s ability to capture design intent, validate requirements, communicate and manage data across disciplines and organizational boundaries, reuse intellectual property, and even generate downstream implementations. BridgePoint is an advanced, proven, xtUML-based environment built upon the Eclipse IDE platform. The term xtUML indicates extensions to the standard UML, which enables execution of ... (more)

MuleSoft Achieves Successive Record Q1 With 109% Year Over Year Growth and 97% Increase in Customer Satisfaction

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 05/14/12 -- MuleSoft, provider of the world's most widely used integration platform, today announced a record quarter in Q1 2012, achieving an 109 percent increase in bookings year over year. This success was driven by new customer wins among major companies and key SaaS vendor partnerships added in Q1 include Avalara and Zuora. Additionally, the company reported a strong customer renewal rate of 95 percent and increased its industry-leading customer satisfaction rate to 97 percent. Key Q1 Accomplishments Key SaaS vendor partnerships added include Avalara and Zuora Hired first vice president of talent, Adriana Torosian Named one of the San Francisco Bay Area's "Best Places to Work" by The San Francisco Business Times Recognized as an industry game changer as one of AlwaysOn's OnDemand Top 100 Mule iON won the 2012 Cloud Awards ... (more)

10gen Delivers MongoDB for Windows Azure at 'Meet Windows Azure' Event in San Francisco

NEW YORK, NY and PALO ALTO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 06/06/12 -- 10gen, the company behind MongoDB, today announced ongoing collaboration with Microsoft Corp. to bring the power of MongoDB to Windows Azure. Developers now have access to an easy-to-use installer to launch MongoDB for Windows Azure Virtual Machines. In addition to broadening the array of cloud and hosting options available to MongoDB developers, this effort uniquely combines the leading NoSQL database with Microsoft technologies, including Windows Azure and .NET, and other open source technologies that Microsoft supports. "We are committed to working with industry leaders like 10gen to deliver the best cloud experience to our customers," said Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President, Server and Tools Business, Microsoft. "Strengthening the bond between Windows Azure and MongoDB was a no brainer. MongoDB of... (more)

Talend Expands Big Data Solution with Support of Major NoSQL Databases

Talend, a global open source software leader, today announced the addition of support for widely-used and deployed NoSQL databases in Talend’s big data integration solutions, Talend Open Studio for Big Data and Talend Platform for Big Data. Talend already provides graphical components that enable easy configuration for leading big data technologies such as Apache Hadoop’s HDFS file system or Apache Hive to provide random, real-time read/write, column-oriented access to big data. With support for leading NoSQL technologies including Cassandra, HBase and MongoDB, Talend enables organizations to attain the highest levels of big data integration performance and inclusiveness. This support also extends the scope of Talend’s integration across the full spectrum of transactional, operational and analytic data sources found in enterprise big data environments. Talend’s ent... (more)