Lock-in, migration costs can put a damper on cloud projects
Cloud services promise low cost-of-entry and rapid return on investment, but those advantages make it easy to overlook associated investments. To find out the true return on investment (ROI) of cloud computing enterprises have to dig deeper, according to a white paper from industry organization Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA).
Calculating the total cost of an IT service against its potential return is always a challenge for IT staff, and that holds even truer for cloud computing, according to ISACA. A thorough analysis of cloud computing benefits must include short-, medium- and long-term views as well as termination costs, it said.
Hidden costs that enterprises may fail to anticipate when moving quickly to cloud-based services include the cost of bringing services back in-house due to regulatory change; unexpected expenses involved in the initial migration of systems; and lock-in with a specific provider or proprietary service model, according to ISACA. Read more...
Email in security hot seat with rise of cloud, BYOD
For most enterprises it is not enough to make sure their own email platform is secure. If their suppliers are not equally secure, they can be as vulnerable to criminal hackers and data leaks from human error as the weakest link in their supply chain.
The combination of a chain of usually small- to medium-size suppliers, the expansion of cloud-based email services and the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend among workers has created what Richard Parris, writing for BCW, calls a "complex melting pot of security challenges surrounding the secure transfer of sensitive data via email."
By now, the advantages and risks of BYOD have been well documented. While it promotes convenience, collaboration and mobile productivity among employees, it is vulnerable to malicious applications, theft and simple carelessness -- employees storing corporate data in public cloud services that are not secure, so they can access it anytime. Read more...
Total bankers: Twitter and LinkedIn’s cynical API play
In tech today, it has become a truism that "if you're not paying for it, you're the product". Somehow we have applied this wisdom to consumers without recognising that the same principle applies to enterprises and their developers. Recently, however, Netflix and LinkedIn have reminded us just how precarious it is to build on someone else's platform - or API.
Paul Graham, one of the founders of Y Combinator, has described APIs as "self-serve [business development]". It's a great story: open and document your API and watch a thousand businesses bloom, bringing you cash and legitimacy. All of which may be true, if done correctly. Read more...
Hadoop becomes critical cog in the big data machine
Apache's Hadoop technologies are becoming critical in helping enterprises manage vast amounts of data, with users ranging from NASA to Twitter to Netflix increasing their reliance on the open source distributed computing platform.
Hadoop has gathered momentum as a mechanism for dealing with the concept of big data, in which enterprises seek to derive value from the rapidly growing amounts of data in their computer systems. Recognizing Hadoop's potential, users are both using the existing Hadoop platform technologies and developing their own technologies to complement the Hadoop stack.
Hadoop's corporate usage now and in the futureNASA expects Hadoop to handle large data loads in projects such as its Square Kilometer Array sky-imaging effort, which will churn out 700TBps when built in the next decade. The data systems will include Hadoop, as well as technologies such as Apache OODT (Object Oriented Data Technology), to cope with the massive data loads, says Chris Mattmann, a senior computer scientist at NASA. Read more...
Got no idea what Hadoop is, but think you need it? You’re not alone
Hadoop is quickly becoming essential infrastructure for enterprises hoping to glean insights from the massive quantities of data they collect. The problem is that relatively few enterprises have the necessary competence to make effective use of the still-complex open-source project. While Hadoop vendors like Cloudera, Hortonworks, EMC, and MapR are doing their parts to simplify Hadoop, the real breakthrough for Hadoop may come from the applications that run on it, and not improvements to the infrastructure, according to Cloudera CEO Mike Olson. Read more...
Amazon Web Services updates Linux implementation
Amazon Web Services has upgraded the Linux image that runs in its cloud to include newer versions of Tomcat, MySQL, and Python, while at the same time allowing enterprises to stay on older versions, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday.
Allowing enterprises to run different versions of applications and programming languages has been one of the major goals with version 2012.03 of the Amazon Linux AMI (Amazon Machine Image). It allows code that relies on different versions to migrate from older AMIs with minimal changes, according to Amazon. Read more...
A closer look at Lenovo’s enterprise and hybrid ultrabooks
Cashing in on the ultrabook excitement at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Lenovo has rolled out four of its own slimmed-down models, including one geared specifically for the enterprise.
Lenovo, which released its first ultrabook -- the U300S -- last October, worked on filling out its ultrabook offerings here at CES this week.
On Monday, Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo's chairman and CEO, unveiled the IdeaPad Yoga, the company's hybrid ultrabook that can be flipped around to look like a tablet computer. Lenovo followed that news by releasing three more ultrabooks: the IdeaPad U310, a 13-in. ultrabook, the IdeaPad U410, a 14-in machine, and for enterprises, the ThinkPad T430U. Read more...
TwinStrata integrates storage gateway with OpenStack-based clouds
Enterprises can now use TwinStrata's CloudArray to access storage capacity hosted in OpenStack-based clouds, the company said on Tuesday.
CloudArray is a gateway used to add cloud storage and mix it with existing storage environments. OpenStack is the latest addition to a growing list of public and private cloud platforms the product can integrate with, including Amazon S3, AT&T Synaptic, Nirvanix and EMC Atmos.
The integration with OpenStack includes the ability to use the private beta of Hewlett Packard's upcoming Cloud Services, according to TwinStrata.
OpenStack is open-source software for building private and public clouds. The project was founded by NASA and Rackspace Hosting, and is backed by over 140 companies including Cisco Systems, Citrix Systems, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Intel. Read more...
Former NASA CTO launches cloud appliance
The former CTO of NASA and co-founder of OpenStack unveiled on Wednesday a new appliance designed to make it easy for enterprises to build private clouds.
The idea is to eliminate the customization required to build most private clouds, said Chris Kemp, CEO and founder of Nebula, the company offering the appliance. "In order to see enterprises adopt private clouds, it has to be turnkey. They can't be in a position where they have to spin up a huge consulting effort and develop a customized cloud," he said.
Nebula has loaded OpenStack onto an appliance, adding security and management features aimed at making the appliance work well with existing compliance and security procedures in enterprises. It's designed to work with the cheapest available servers. Each appliance has a 10GB switch and 48 ports, so 24 2U servers can connect to it, Kemp said. Read more...
NetSuite Aims at Enterprises With ‘unlimited’ Push
On-demand ERP software vendor NetSuite is expected to announce a new push into large enterprises on Tuesday during its SuiteWorld user conference in San Francisco.
Dubbed NetSuite Unlimited, the announcement is less about a specific product than about an array of partnerships, services, applications and technology improvements meant to respond to the demands of the world's biggest companies. The move represents a further shift away from the small and medium-sized businesses that have largely constituted NetSuite's user base since its formation in 1998. Read more...