Cloud services changed the IT ops game, but performance was more iffy than lots of people realized. Google’s Cloud Platform got to benefit from its predecessors. In December, Google announced general availability of its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) Google Compute Engine. Compute Engine is among the three pillars of the Google Cloud Platform. The alternative two are App Engine (Google’s platform-as-a-service) and cloud storage (Google’s SQL, NoSQL, and object storage). These pillars comprise a totally large-scale compute and storage infrastructure for a diversity of scalable service offerings that Google developers make heavy use of internally and that Google makes available for public consumption via software as-a-service (SaaS) and well-defined programming interfaces (APIs). Many within the blogosphere have discussed the value-performance and particular features of Compute Engine that set it except for its competitors. Last March, GigaOm published a test drive of Compute Engine by Sebastian Stadil and his team at Scalr, a front-end cloud management firm, comparing Google Compute Engine to Amazon Web Services. Google’s writes to... Read More »

Cloud services change how federal agencies acquire, fund, and use IT services. IT managers must realize they’re buying a service, not technology. Cloud computing has introduced a brand new model of acquiring hardware and software. In fact, you are not acquiring anything physical, and far of the worth of moving to the cloud is driven by the transition from using physical resources (hardware, software, and labor hours) to the consumption of online services (infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, and software-as-a-service) that deliver similar functions.  While the technical aspect of this transformation seems to capture all of the headlines, the financial and governance aspects are only as important — but turn out at the back burner. Unfortunately, the mandatory changes in management policy, acquisition processes, and organizational behavior rarely get the planning they deserve or get executed properly upfront. This disconnect can quickly derail any cloud transition. Government IT managers must accept that cloud computing means the acquisition of a service, not the acquisition of technology. This usually represents... Read More »

Microsoft-sponsored survey of two,000 IT pros says private, on-premises clouds and personal, hosted services represent the hybrid clouds of the long run. 8 Data Centers For Cloud’s Toughest Jobs (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) Hybrid and personal cloud deployments have emerged not just as cost savers but additionally stimulants for prime-line business growth, in accordance with Hosting and Cloud Go Mainstream: 2014, a Microsoft-commissioned study conducted by 451 Research. The study, which surveyed greater than 2,000 IT professionals in 11 countries, found that greater than 45% of organizations have moved beyond cloud pilots, and that just about one third have integrated formal cloud computing plans into their overall IT and business strategies. In an interview, Marco Limena, VP of Microsoft’s Hosting Service Providers business, said corporate cloud adoption is “accelerating 12 months prior to a two-year prediction” established by earlier research. [Is Microsoft SQL Server 2014 right in your business? Read Microsoft Release In-Memory Ready SQL Server 2014.] Michelle Bailey, a senior VP... Read More »

Google is Amazon’s only real cloud threat, say observers including Cloudscaling’s Randy Bias. But under new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, that’s more likely to morph. Cloudscaling CEO Randy Bias said in a blog Wednesday that Amazon Web Services’s only real competition is Google. That can be true. Google is an important web technology company that’s invented many large-scale technologies that the enterprise desires to use today. It’s logical that enterprises would definitely turn to Google for leadership within the cloud. But then, doubts set in. Google Apps, a pivot point of Google’s outreach to the enterprise, doesn’t have many large converts. some , but not many, a minimum of not at the record. If businesses don’t cash in on this Google service, which they will initiate at no cost, how likely are enterprises to become long-term Google customers for cloud services? [Would like to see how Google is taking over Amazon in storage? See Google Compute Cloud Challenges Amazon.] After witnessing Satya Nadella’s ascension at... Read More »

IT managers must consider potentially crippling cloud outages when calculating the real cost of a cloud service. As any networking professional knows, downtime costs money. However, few know exactly what quantity of money downtime costs. Estimates, calculations, and incidentals are all open to interpretation. This creates a great deal of uncertainty. Cloud computing is a superb tool to exploit here. Many IT pros are turning to cloud-based technologies to mitigate the price of downtime. However, is the viability of a cloud migration backed by facts or according to suppositions? The assumption that cloud services can reduce downtime is founded at the belief that third-party providers deploy all types of continuity technology that every one but guarantees uptime. That belief, coupled with service-level agreements (SLAs) that make promises about limiting unscheduled interruptions in service, can provide you a feeling of security. The $64000 question becomes whether that sense of security is fake or justified — and, more importantly, whether a price may be assigned to it. To determine... Read More »