When organizations migrate to cloud computing, most of the focus is on technology components such as security, automation, and policy management. There is, however, another key element that's necessary for a cloud model to work within enterprises, and it involves organizational behavior.
Under CIO Vivek Kundra, the federal government has launched Apps.gov, an online marketplace of software where federal agencies can find what they need, sometimes at bargain prices. But behind the scenes, it's made a much bigger bet on cloud computing. It's NASA's Nebula cloud at the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.
Google has removed what for many CIOs and IT professionals has been one of the last remaining hurdles to their adoption of Google Apps for business documents, spreadsheets, presentations and probably most importantly: email. Yesterday, the biggest of the cloud-based challengers to Microsoft and IBM-Lotus announced it now has a range of Blackberry-esque mobile device management features (including the ability to remotely wipe a smartphone) for iPhones as well as Windows Mobile and Nokia-based devices.
There is a case of piling on going on right now as it relates to cloud storage. While I agree that the term has been hijacked, stretched and bent by more than a few storage vendors, that does not mean that the whole concept is bad. While the name is as poorly chosen as “social media”, the concept is dead on.
If you're a cloud computing startup, innovator, or just a developer who is tinkering with that pet cloud project in your "garage" and you're looking for some prime time exposure (including free exhibit space at Cloud Connect), then you should be thinking about putting yourself in the running for Launch Pad at Cloud Connect. I, along with fellow InformationWeek editors John Foley and Fritz Nelson, are among the 10 jury members and you only need know how to work Twitter to get started.
Two weeks ago, HP and Microsoft announced they would jointly spend $250 million to better integrate their hardware and software systems. That's one of the first reactions to Oracle's expected acquisition of Sun Microsystems and its entry into the hardware business. More such alliances are likely to spring out of the ranks of Oracle's competitors.
As the Cloud Compute and Cloud Storage markets continue to mature, some of those vendors are going to go out of business. It is the natural order of things. The strong (or well funded) survive. You either need to be very sure that the cloud vendor is not going to be one of those that does or you need to make sure you are getting your data out of the cloud on a regular basis.
Had Novell's director of public relations Ian Bruce not responded to my blog post about Google's choice to change Gmail's default transmission mode from the less secure HTTP (Web) to the more secure and encrypted HTTPS (Secure Web), I would have never seen his own blog post on Novell's Web site entitled On Google, e-mail security, and cloud. But I'm glad I saw it. It's evidence of how some vendors might be too quick to throw fuel on the fire of misinformation in order to draw positive attention to themselves.
Cloud storage may end up being the great storage repository in the sky. The destination that holds all our data and gets it off of our local storage. Whether you use this as a fourth tier of storage that your internal archive spills over too or as your sole archive, someday you are going to need to find data in it. Should we be indexing cloud storage to find the needle in the haystack?
Kudos to the folks at Gmail who, in defaulting to a secure browser setting (as opposed to the previous insecure default) for sending and retrieving email, have decided to help users who may not know enough to help themselves. The new default (see screenshot below) tells the browser to access the Gmail service over HTTPS instead of the prior default, HTTP. This significant shift by Google is a reminder that there's probably more you can do to secure your organization's data and communications.
AmberPoint's service-oriented architecture management software will be folded into Fusion middleware, said Oracle. MORE
| Where is your company in adopting infrastructure as a service? |
| Using it |
 34%
|
| Considering it |
 31%
|
| No plans |
 34%
|
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