Benioff Offers Cloud Riposte: It's Not Just Fashion
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, finally got a little revenge. He wasn't in the least spiteful. Rather, he was only guilty of repeating something his former boss, Larry Ellison, said about software-as-a-service and cloud computing. An audience of cloud cognoscenti at Structure 09 loved the performance.
Real-World Cloud Computing Applications
Anyone trying to understand the cloud computing phenomenon need only look at how cloud services are being used to get a better picture. The following examples demonstrate the cloud being used for everything from marketing campaigns to space exploration and scientific research.
Bucking the Cloud Computing Hype
If you push back on cloud computing, even for good reasons, then you're considered a backward thinker. If you go along with the trends and the hype, and your systems hit a cloud computing-enabled wall, then you're considered incompetent. I'm not sure which path is better.
10 Essentials Of IBM's Cloud Computing Strategy
IBM recently made its most significant cloud computing announcement to date, which one executive compares to the launch of Big Blue's venerable System/360 mainframe 40 years ago. Following is my list of the top 10 things you need to know about IBM's emerging cloud strategy.
Oracle Moves A 'Little Bit' Into Cloud Computing
Following his outburst against cloud computing last year, it appears that Larry Ellison has warmed up to the cloud computing model, if not the buzz phrase itself. Oracle's CEO yesterday said it's a goal to become the software industry's "number one on-demand application company."
The Cloud's Next Big Thing: Software Testing
IBM and Hewlett-Packard have jumped into the market for software testing in the cloud, a space where a handful of startups already offer alternatives to on-premises testing. It's an area of cloud computing where the barriers to entry are relatively low for developers and IT departments.
Sony PSP To Host GTA Chinatown Wars
Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, which has only been available on the Nintendo DS, is coming to Sony's PlayStation Portable.
IBM 'Clouds' Look Like Conventional IT
The issue here is that cloud computing is really about, well, cloud computing. Existing hardware and software vendors, including Microsoft, Cisco, HP, and, of course, IBM seem to find that thought a bit scary and continue to toss traditional hardware and software at the problem...
Of Cloud 9 and The Importance of Parachutes
Back when I did a lot of security work, we used to joke around that single sign on should be called "single vulnerability". Maybe single provider cloud models should be called "single point of failure".
Cloud Standards Will Emerge From Current Haze
What standards do you follow if you're interested in getting started in cloud computing? The short answer is, there are few clearly defined standards in what remains a loosely defined area. Nevertheless, the main outline is clear. Follow the leaders and follow the Web.
Another Hot Market For SaaS: Business Intelligence
Popular applications for software-as-a-service include CRM, expense management, human resources, and Web analytics. But now we're seeing a sudden burst of activity around business intelligence SaaS. Makes sense, since BI software is popular right now, and shares characteristics with the aforementioned apps that make it right for cloud computing.
Is That A Cloud On Healthcare's Horizon?
Cloud models are starting to provide an attractive option for large and influential regional medical centers to get lots of small, local, laggard doctor offices trading in their paper patient files for electronic medical records. Are there clouds in your forecast?
Another Reason to Put Data in the Cloud
Google Labs recently announced Google Fusion Tables, an "experimental system" for fusing data management and collaboration... The use cases here are numerous, but the core idea is that users will upload data, and then analyze and visualize the data on Google Maps or mashed up with other APIs, such as the Google Visualization API...
Cloud Computing Vs. $100 Million Data Center
Citizens of Holyoke, Mass., had reason to celebrate this week as the governor of Massachusetts and other dignitaries--including Cisco CEO John Chambers, EMC CEO Joe Tucci, and the presidents of Boston University, MIT, and the University of Massachusetts--announced plans to build a $100 million data center in their town. It's an ambitious proposal, but is it necessary?
SuccessFactors' CEO On SAP's SaaS Strategy
After I wrote about SAP's new SaaS strategy Wednesday, several SAP competitors sent emails slamming the strategy. Not an unusual response from competitors, right? But I did accept the offer to talk to Lars Dalgaard, CEO of SuccessFactors, which just landed a massive deal for 420,000 seats of its talent-management SaaS with
EA's Sims 3 Defies Recession
More than 1.4 million units of Sims 3 have been sold since Electronic Arts released the latest version of the video game June 2.
Paglo Monitors Amazon EC2
SaaS startup Paglo has added monitoring for Amazon's cloud to its IT search and management service.
Google App Sync Guns For Microsoft Exchange
The software allows Outlook users to connect to Google Apps for e-mail, contacts, and calendar data, as well as helping Google nibble away at Microsoft's enterprise contracts.
Cloud Computing Goes Global
Three far-flung research organizations have joined the cloud computing test bed run by Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and Yahoo. The locations of these new converts--in Russia, South Korea, and Malaysia--provide more evidence that cloud computing is quickly becoming a global phenomenon.
SAP Tops Oracle And IBM, But Siemens Picks SaaS
While SAP today had to enjoy announcing a rip-and-replace deal over Oracle and IBM for a utility client, it also had to sit by and watch as longtime SAP global strategic partner Siemens not only overlooked SAP for a whopping 420,000-seat workforce-management license but also selected a SaaS vendor to boot. This is surely not a business for the faint of heart.
U.K. CIOs Foggy About Cloud Computing
Most are adopting online software and service delivery with secure hosted environments but are hesitating to adopt the cloud computing concept, a new report finds.
Research Identifies Misconceptions About Cloud Computing
There's an assumption that it's mostly small and midmarket companies that are interested in cloud computing, since they don't already have huge IT infrastructures, while large companies want to keep everything inside their own firewalled data centers. But new research from Forrester indicates that conventional wisdom is wrong.
Eli Lilly, NASA Build Eucalyptus Clouds
Eucalyptus Systems, the startup behind the open source cloud computing software, has identified its first two customers: NASA and Eli Lilly. That's an impressive start for a company that's barely three months old.
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