Friday 12 March 2010
The market leader and only European forum for business leaders and strategists in the cloud space, 2nd PoweredbyCloud (www.poweredbycloud.com) which will take place 8-9 February 2010, has been launched today alongside the Cloud Law summit, the first legal forum for cloud computing in Europe.
The organisers, consulting firm BroadGroup, says that two big themes are emerging for debate at the 2010 PoweredByCloud conference: the business and technological case for Private Cloud and the growth and implications of Mobile Cloud services. The forum will offer industry leaders the opportunity to debate the coming changes, position their organizations to take advantage of them, and network with clients and providers in this fast-moving space.
“The second conference occurs as Cloud shifts from early adopters towards mainstream markets and product packages designed for large enterprises promote outsourced Private Cloud,” commented Tim Jackson, chairman of PoweredbyCloud. “The shift is discernible from a Cloud pitched by outsiders, to one promoted by insiders.”
Cloud also holds profound implications for businesses and governments, by raising contentious issues about privacy and security, government regulation, data location and international competition, as well as the implications of the US Patriot Act and EU Data Directive, which will feature in the Cloud Law summit taking place on 10th February 2010.
Mobile cloud and the hosting and delivery of applications promises an explosion of data transactions and revenue opportunities.
“PoweredbyCloud is the selected forum for decision makers from across Europe, and who are likely to be represented in force at the forum. Any company who is evaluating whether to make a commitment to cloud, or serious about talking to the early adopters outside the US already doing so, then the 2010 event is likely to be the best venue to do that.”
With more than 25% of attendees at C level, the European event is attended by the leadership of cloud service providers, enterprise IT, telcos, solution suppliers, government and regulatory agencies, law firms, investors and professional intermediaries.
The organisers are offering an early discount scheme that runs through to the end of December 2000.
enquiries@poweredbycloud.com
The Cloud Computing World Forum, scheduled to take place on October 22, has reported that it is nearly sold to capacity, with 200 senior professionals scheduled to participate at the 76 Portland Place, London location.
Mark Johnstone, MD of Point Zero Media remarked, ”We are close to selling out on this show which is testament to the level of interest in this subject, at a time when many shows are seeing their numbers fall. The networking opportunities available will contribute to what is already a great agenda, and make this into a first class forum with lots of opportunity.”
Speakers scheduled to participate include:
Evangelos Kotsovinos, VP of Hosting, Morgan Stanley
Kostas Tsatsaris, CTO and Director, Strategy and Architecture, HM Revenue and Customs
Keith Misson, Business Director, Group IT, Aviva
Andy McLoughlin, Co-founder and Strategy Director, Huddle
Euan Semple, Freelance Consultant/Former Director of Knowledge Management, BBC
Tony Ryan, CEO, Asite
Laurent Lachal, Senior Analyst, Ovum
David Terrar, CEO, D2C
Mike Spink, Research Director, Gartner
Matt Johns, EMEA Product Marketing, Rackspace
Robin Daniels, Sr Manager,Product Marketing, Salesforce.com
VMware, Cisco and EMC will also provide an overview and discussion of their ”private cloud” vision. In what promises to be a truly insightful presentation, the leading trio will discuss their joint vision for the cloud, outlining which immediate actions and sequential steps need to be taken by IT professionals, in order to ensure that their infrastructure are truly ready and enabled for the Journey to The Cloud. The supporting exhibition and networking area will play host to some of the industry’s leading companies including Netapp, Netsuite, SunGard, CRYPTOCard and Mimecast. The cost of attending the full conference is 200 pounds and includes both access to the conference and all of the presentations and to the networking area.
To learn more about the conference, please call +44 (0) 845 519 1230 or book online at: www.cloudwf.com.
White Paper Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing is quite possibly the hottest, most discussed and often misunderstood concept in Information Technology (IT) today.
Tags: cloud computing papers, cloud computing pdf, cloud computing ppt, cloud computing architecture , about cloud computing, cloud computing presentation, private cloud, free cloud computing
In short, Cloud Computing proposes to transform the way IT it’s deployed and managed, promising reduced implementation, maintenance costs and complexity, while accelerating innovation, providing faster timeto-market, and the ability to scale high-performance applications and infrastructures on demand.
But business managers know that in spite of the benefits of every new technology/business model there are also risks and issues (like for example: trust, loss of privacy, regulatory violation, data replication, coherency and erosion of integrity, application sprawl and dependencies, etc.) and that rushing things when it comes to Cloud Computing can be a very bad decision, but blowing off Cloud Computing all together because you think you can secure your own stuff better than a service provider or because many claims, made about Cloud Computing, have lead you to the point of “irrational exuberance” and unrealistic expectations, isn’t smart, either.
The goal of this White Paper is to provide a realistic perspective of the possibilities, benefits and risks of Cloud Computing; what to look for, what to avoid, and also some tips and best practices on implementation, architecture and vendor management strategies. It is important to consider all those aspects before you decide either to move (but without putting the carriage before the horse) or not to move your systems, applications, and/or data to to the “Cloud”, in a “hype free” approach.
Click here to download the White Paper
About Maria Spínola
Maria Spínola is a Researcher, Strategic IT Marketing And Innovation Adviser, White Paper Copywriter and Cloud Computing Evangelist with more than 15 years experience in enterprise information technologies.
She holds a Software Engineering degree and a “Marketing and Innovation in Retail and Distribution” pos-graduation.
She is also editor at http://www.cloudviews.org/author/MariaSpinola/
You can follow her at : http://twitter.com/MariaSpinola
Rackspace Private Cloud
Rackspace has announced its new Private Cloud offering through VMware virtualisation platform
Rackspace recognises the demand from enterprises for a more flexible and scalable hosting solution. Although multi-tenant cloud solutions are very flexible and cost-effective, they are not always right for every segment. The Rackspace Private Cloud’s single-tenant architecture offers increased control and security, while still maintaining the scalability, flexibility and resource optimisation that make shared cloud offerings so compelling.
“Rackspace provides an excellent option for customers to take advantage of the cloud,” said Dan Chu, vice president, emerging products and markets, VMware. “Enterprises who purchase the Rackspace Private Cloud can count on the powerful combination of VMware’s industry-leading virtualisation platform and Rackspace’s reliable hosting environment and infrastructure.”
Rackspace Private Cloud is an evolution of its popular dedicated virtual server (DVS) offering within the managed hosting business unit. In the last year, revenue from virtualisation solutions has grown substantially, driven mainly by the increased flexibility, improved asset utilisation and lower capital and operating costs that VMware’s virtualisation provides.
“Rackspace is implementing a true hybrid hosting vision that allows customers to create a blend of the right hosting solutions - from a dedicated server, to multi-tenant cloud to specialised application hosting such as hosted exchange - each backed by our industry leading support. The Rackspace Private Cloud is one piece of the entire hybrid vision”, said John Engates, Rackspace CTO. “Computing is changing at a rapid pace, and customers require that we stay ahead of the curve to continue providing best-in-class offers. We view the Rackspace Private Cloud as having a large impact for our enterprise customers who need the flexibility, scalability, and reliability provided by VMware’s virtualisation, paired with the control and security of a dedicated environment. It is the best of both worlds for those enterprises looking to explore the benefits of external cloud solutions, without as much risk.”
About Rackspace Hosting:
As the world’s leader and specialist in hosting, Rackspace Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry’s best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable.
A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support, furthering the company’s mission to be one of the world’s greatest service companies. Rackspace featured in the top 30 of both the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies To Work For list and the Financial Times Great Place to Work Awards, 2008.
Rackspace’s portfolio of hosted services includes managed exchange, managed hosting, hybrid hosting and cloud hosting.
Website: http://www.rackspace.co.uk/
For more information, please contact
Mital Joshi
Rocket PR
Palladia
20 Garrick Street
London
WC2 E9BT
08453 707 024
The draft NIST definition, perhaps the best we have at this point, states that “Cloud computing is a pay-per-use model for enabling available, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. One of the key value propositions for cloud computing is the transfer of expense from the capital (CAPEX) to the operational (OPEX) column. Private clouds can still deliver some of the other benefits of cloud computing, especially for the largest organizations. Private and hybrid clouds can also serve as a gateway, allowing enterprise IT to become familiar and comfortable with cloud computing paradigms in a controlled environment.
This might seem foolish to the average person, or even the travel departments of medium-sized businesses, but the substantial expense might be offset by the convenience or increased productivity of private aviation. Cloud computing is similar: The average individual or organization will probably derive maximum benefit from sharing a public cloud infrastructure, but this should not preclude certain special cases where a private cloud will be called for.
Despite what some vendors might tell you, the use of open source software will be a fundamental element to the future of public and private cloud computing infrastructure, according to The 451 Group. Speaking at Red Hat Inc.’s Open Source Cloud Computing Forum Webcast on Wednesday, the New York-based research firm said open source and cloud computing could actually be a match made in technology heaven. Significant advantages include the reduced barriers to entry, open data standards and APIs, and flourishing support communities. For companies like Red Hat, ISVs have to more fully embrace moving apps that enterprises need to the public cloud, according to Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens. For the future, the company wants to see a higher degree of compatibility between external cloud providers, zero cost of entry and exit for users moving to cloud-based environments, better data mobility, the elimination of ISV licencing obstacles, and an overall reduction in complexity for on-premise cloud installations.
The Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. success stories were also echoed by Aslett, who said both public cloud platforms benefited from low cost licencing and flexibility, as well as the ability to empower their developers. Other benefits that open source will bring to private cloud environments include lowered barriers to adoption, de facto interoperability standards, SLA-based subscription pricing, flexible licencing, and the ability to choose whether or not you want to contribute your source code modifications, ut while open source has certainly shaped the foundation of cloud computing and its biggest success stories, some industry watchers have argued that the cloud model threatens to introduce a new layer of complexity for organizations, whether they are taking advantage of public clouds or building out private clouds.
It was inevitable, and I just missed the release by a few months, however, Microsoft is working hard on releasing the “Private Cloud”, your own on-premises cloud computing software. ith the Microsoft cloud strategy, organizations can now move towards cloud computing models with the confidence that their existing investments in their datacenter are safe, and can be leveraged in this new paradigm. Existing applications and services will be able to move to the private cloud without the need to learn unproven technologies or introduce unnecessary complexity.
Microsoft is enabling customers to build the foundation for a private cloud infrastructure using Windows Server and System Center family of products with the Dynamic Data Center Toolkit for Enterprises, availability scheduled in the first half of 2010.
The integrated solution includes UniCluster, Univa’s leading HPC systems management software product that provides a superior alternative to commercial cluster schedulers by integrating a range of technologies into a single, unified stack. Available for download at www.Grid.org, UniCluster includes expanded systems management functionality that automates repetitive and homegrown administrative tasks, significantly reducing time to value and TCO for cluster owners. The solution also relies upon UniPortal, powered by NICE EnginFrame, which provides a user-friendly portal to easily access computing resources, data, licenses, batch applications and interactive applications. UniPortal’s evolutionary framework and security features fit the most demanding IT environments and easily blend with corporate Intranets, Extranets, enterprise portals and single-sign-on solutions.
Univa UD is a leader and innovator in application and infrastructure enablement software for dynamic IT environments, including cloud computing. Univa understands the challenges and benefits of cloud computing and provides the evolutionary path and comprehensive set of products to get companies there – all without having to ‘rip and replace’ their legacy IT investments. For over a decade, Univa has delivered proven, award-winning technology to hundreds of market-leading companies. Our lightweight infrastructure products are fast and easy to deploy, ensuring better time to value for our customers, and our leading application service governance product intelligently automates resource provisioning based on application SLAs. With a focus on making business easier for our customers, Univa is advancing the vision and practice of dynamic IT. Visit us at www.univaud.com.
Corus is a leading supplier to many of the most demanding markets around the world including construction, automotive, packaging, mechanical and electrical engineering, metal goods, and oil & gas. With innovation and continuous improvement at the heart of its business performance, Corus aims to create value by offering a differentiated product range supported by unrivalled customer service. Corus is a subsidiary of Tata Steel, the world’s sixth largest steel producer. With a combined presence in nearly 50 countries, the Tata Steel Group including Corus, Tata Steel Thailand and NatSteel Asia, has approximately 80,000 employees across five continents and a crude steel production capacity of over 28 million tonnes.
Private clouds allow organisations to easily manage their own hardware resources in-house. Using virtualization technology they can alter the provided computing to suit the work at hand. This makes it easier for them to provide the necessary infrastructure for their users, even if these needs change rapidly over time. In the future this approach could help sites to increase their resources by using commercial cloud providers during peak loads. The two teams will work together to explore how the institutes providing computing resources to EGEE could benefit from adopting a ‘private cloud’ model to provide resources.
The RESERVOIR virtualisation manager builds on the open source project OpenNebula which has been developed at the Distributed Systems Architecture Research Group at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The group’s aim is to make management of cloud resources easier using virtual machine technology. RESERVOIR offers the ability for EGEE sites to easily meet the changing needs of the users, from scaling-up services to meet peak loads and improving redundancy, to changing the resources provided to run particular applications.
Amitive Unity 5.0, offered via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model and aimed at enabling “community SCM for both large and small companies that outsource manufacturing.
Amitive said that Unity 5.0 introduces architectural updates to let communities of supply chain owners, customers and supply partners leverage the “true value of cloud computing” in any public or private cloud environment. Supply chain solution provider Amitive has delivered what it is calling the industry’s first supply chain management (SCM) solution “delivered in the cloud,” Amitive Unity 5.0, offered via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model and aimed at enabling “community SCM for both large and small companies that outsource manufacturing.” This latest version provides further value by allowing Amitive’s customers to take advantage of critical advancements in the scalability, security and reliability of today’s more mature cloud environment.
Amitive is a catalyst enabling us to team with our retail customers to centralize information, bridge process gaps and create real-time, cross-community visibility,” Pichler said. “With this model, we can drive the highly efficient product velocity of our global business network to serve our customers better than our competitors. We built Amitive Unity 5.0 to fully leverage the two most powerful tenants of true cloud computing,” said Amar Singh, CEO of Amitive. “First, companies should not have to pay for ‘just-in-case’ computing power in advance, and secondly, they should not be pinned down to one cloud environment. Cloud is all about dynamic choice and scalability, and Amitive Unity 5.0 is the only SCM software that lives up to the true cloud computing moniker.
