VMware Vs. Microsoft: 8 Cloud Battle Lines (click image for larger view and for slideshow) There’s an ongoing debate about Amazon Web Services and its place in cloud computing. While much of the initial skepticism has died off — one rarely hears, “What does a bookseller find out about computing?” anymore (aside from from VWware executives) — Amazon still gets damned with faint praise. We still hear: “You have to hand it to Amazon for having prepare an awesome offering. After all , for production applications, IT organizations require enterprise characteristics.” And: “AWS is an incredible resource that’s used lots for test and dev.” The clear implication is that only developers find AWS’s value proposition compelling, and when it comes time for serious computing, those applications shall be hosted internally or placed with an extra sort of hosting provider. Webcasts More >> White Papers More >> Reports More >> The relegation of AWS to the developer ghetto is in no way a given. The perception... Read More »

7 Easy methods to Create E-Portfolios (click image for larger view) E-portfolios have gotten an increasingly important way for college students to point out what they know. But their value doesn’t end after graduation. E-portfolios, which are created in lots of alternative ways — from simple blogging platforms to specifically designed software and services — can assist transition students from academia to different jobs and roles within the workplace. It’s this ability to track a user’s evolution from academic to professional and beyond that led Safiya Noble, a professor on the University of Illinois, to settle on Pathbrite as a learning and representation tool for her students. Webcasts More >> White Papers More >> Reports More >> Noble teaches classes concerned about digital technology. She can be an advocate for using digital technology in education and has always used some sort of electronic environment wherein students can reflect and share and discuss their thoughts. The University of Illinois does offer some e-portfolio options to its... Read More »

IBM’s cloud computing revenues are smaller and no more “cloud-intensive” than customers and Wall Street analysts might think. That is the claim of a former IBM employee who backed up a number of of his/her critical assessments of the vendor’s cloud prowess with various confidential internal documents shared with InformationWeek. The documents put IBM’s 2012 cloud-related revenue at $2.26 billion, a figure the corporate has declined to reveal publicly. In 2011, IBM did issue a roadmap that set forth the goal of reaching $7 billion in annual cloud revenue by 2015, so the much lower figure raises doubts about whether the corporate is not off course. Webcasts More >> White Papers More >> Reports More >> IBM also said in 2011 that only $3 billion of that total would come from net-new business, suggesting that $4 billion can be tied to cloud-based ways of delivering its current hardware, software and services. Noteworthy is data that shows that roughly half current IBM cloud revenues are tied... Read More »

New VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger faces challenges because the company approaches VMworld, that’s scheduled for later this month in San Francisco and again in Barcelona, Spain, in October. There are four things VMware should do to aid itself regawithin the initiative in the virtualization market. The corporate is currently dealing with a period of reorganization because the Pivotal piece is spun out and end user applications are sold off. This retrenchment, inclusive of the appearance of Gelsinger and the departures of key executives equivalent to VP Bogomil Balkansky and CMO Rick Jackson, suggest that a few of the changes are roiling the ranks. VMware has unloaded Zimbra to Telligent for “an undisclosed amount,” but it’s unlikely it got anything just like the $350 million with which Yahoo originally purchased Zimbra in 2007. Whatever VMware paid Yahoo in 2010, it is also unlikely that VMware got its purchase price back. Earlier, VMware dispatched SlideRocket to ClearSlide for an additional undisclosed sum. Either one of these acquisitions... Read More »

Numerous federal agencies are moving to Agile software development methods for some or all in their IT systems development projects. In an era of tightening federal budgets and increased demand on technology to assist meet mission requirements, agencies are seeking how you can deliver critical mission functionality more quickly and with less risk. For various agencies, Agile has become the solution. On its face, the case for Agile is easy: Break the software development process right into a series of short “sprints,” each of which delivers on a small part of the necessities of a system. This modular approach enables (and encourages) frequent delivery of latest functionality to finish users, and facilitates (even demands) user participation and feedback during system creation. Compared, the “Waterfall” development approach used traditionally within government requires users so as to fully describe what they need in a system up front and to attend years until the system is completed. Webcasts More >> White Papers More >> Reports More >> Agencies... Read More »