Cloud Computing

From TechCrunch Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched a certification programme to designate people who have the technical skills for building secure and reliable apps using AWS technology. The new Amazon Web Services Global Certification Programme is built around the three primary roles for engineering teams delivering cloud-based solutions: solutions architect, SysOps ... read more..

From ComputerWeekly.com IT departments will need to ramp up skills in developing for the cloud, to support mobile apps that make use of back-end services. According to Gartner, by 2016, 40% of mobile application development projects will leverage cloud back-end services. Gartner defines cloud mobile back-end services as a specialised form of platform ... read more..

From Computing.co.uk Organisations need to check their bills closely and look out for hidden charges when deploying their applications in the cloud and to check, especially, whether their cloud services include or exclude network services before they sign up. That is the warning of Bernhard Hammerlindl, channels director in global cloud ... read more..

From ComputerWeekly.com Information security professional body (ISC)2 and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) have signed an agreement to collaborate on a new professional certification for information security. The initiative is aimed at addressing concern over the security of cloud-based services by establishing a common global understanding and best practices in design, implementation ... read more..

From Databarracks Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider, Databarracks (www.databarracks.com), in association with the National Computing Centre (NCC), has launched the Guidelines for 'Disaster Recovery in the Cloud', aimed at providing practical advice on disaster recovery (DR) when using cloud services. As computing moves away from the onsite server room model to ... read more..

Media release Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider, Databarracks (www.databarracks.com), in association with the National Computing Centre (NCC), has launched the Guidelines for 'Disaster Recovery in the Cloud', aimed at providing practical advice on disaster recovery (DR) when using cloud services. As computing moves away from the onsite server room model to ... read more..

From Computerworld UK HP can stake a bigger claim in the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) market by creating an enterprise-friendly rival to Amazon's 'consumer' cloud, according to the head of the firm's Converged Cloud unit, Saar Gillai. HP is in the process of reimagining itself in what it terms the 'new ... read more..

From ComputerWeekly.com Data security in the cloud is still a top concern for UK companies, a survey of 250 IT decision makers has revealed. Exposure of confidential company and customer data is the top concern of half of respondents from a range of private and public sector organisations polled by managed services ... read more..

From TechRepublic The shortage of cloud skills in IT teams is so severe it's holding up deployments and leaving firms to look outside to buy in costly expertise. Almost one out of two UK companies says the lack of cloud skills has hampered projects, research from Manchester Business School and Rackspace has ... read more..

From Computerworld.com The key to earning a positive return on investment when adopting cloud services including Software as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service is carefully studying costs and benefits to ensure that such a shift will pay off. Sounds like many of the other IT projects you've shepherded, ... read more..

From IT Adviser More and more businesses are creating custom applications for mobile devices to achieve tasks which have until now required high-performance desktop PCs and this is enabling a more mobile workforce whose only requirement is an internet connection. The days of having to carry laptops are rapidly drawing ... read more..

From ComputerWeekly.com British businesses have yet to make the most of cloud computing services because many are hesitant to adopt it, according to experts from Manchester University, the Federation of Small Businesses, cloud provider Rackspace and a few Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) users. Businesses in the UK could become much stronger ... read more..

ITSM Advances Set to Empower and Engage Users in 2013Through discussions with vendors, clients and research into technology trends and disruptors, Ovum has identified what it believes will be the key IT service management (ITSM) advances of 2013. More detailed information and analysis can be found in our recently published ... read more..

IT Governance is the Key to Managing Complex Agile ProjectsOvums recent report, Managing Large-Scale Agile Projects: Case Studies, examines how leading-edge agile consultancies have dealt with the challenges of going beyond the team in a room that characterised the early gestation of agile methodologies. Today, agile software development is practised ... read more..

Enterprises Struggle to Navigate Mobile Business Intelligence LandscapeThe consumerisation of IT is prevalent in the enterprise. Consumers have become accustomed to mobile applications that allow them to swiftly and easily access relevant content regardless of place or time. These consumers are now seeking the same experience with business applications. Business ... read more..

Smart City Market Movers Stimulate ProgressSmartness is coming soon to a city near you. Truly, it is: the smart city chimera seems to have been with us forever, but there is something happening in the UK that is finally moving the market from the envisioning stage to the deployment stage ... read more..

Mobility Integration is a Major Challenge for ITOrganisations are moving beyond the traditional means of connecting with existing and potential customers. Similarly, they are exploring different avenues to fulfil the ever-increasing needs for reductions in the cost of IT, greater productivity and better employee engagement. As a result, in most ... read more..

Market Conditions Will Drive Adoption of Sustainability Solutions in 2013Sustainability management will remain a corporate priority in 2013. Organisations around the world are being pressed to reduce their environmental impact and operate in a more sustainable manner. Difficult economic conditions, rising energy prices, resource depletion and increasingly stringent environmental regulations ... read more..

Integration Will Slowly Shift to the CloudMany organisations are still struggling with traditional application integration issues, and the increasing heterogeneity of enterprise application portfolios driven by the rapid rise of social, mobile and SaaS applications is not good news for them. Integration is often messy and complex and beyond the ... read more..

Splunk Aims to Climb the Value ChainSplunk, which specialises in delivering a data platform for machine data, is approaching a turning point. The explosion of sensory data part of the big data phenomenon is pulling the company in different directions. With a base as the data platform for ... read more..

Adopt a Balanced Approach to Private CloudsUsers are unsure of or have very different views on what constitutes a private cloud, which makes any survey about the subject rather meaningless. They approach private clouds from a variety of viewpoints including bottomup versus topdown, technology versus design, and long-term ... read more..

Meeting Business Objectives with an Enterprise-Wide Application Integration StrategyApplication integration is an enabler of many strategic initiatives and business-critical functionality, including application modernisation, B2B e-commerce, data synchronisation and reduction in the cost of IT. Given the strategic role that integration plays in the realisation of desired business results, it is ... read more..

Social Media Monitoring: Understanding Sentiment AnalysisSocial media monitoring (SMM), like most emerging software markets, is awash with terms of imprecise meaning and the unconscious and sometimes deliberate merging of terms. This can cause confusion and delay adoption, and there must at least be an attempt at removing any ambiguity. In ... read more..

The Landscape Around Open Data and Gov 2.0 Starts to Take Shapeidea of Gov 2.0 re-envisioning whats possible in government/citizen interaction and problem solving through the application of collaboration technologies has been around since 2004. Only very recently, however, has it reached the common lexicon, with local, state ... read more..

Outsourcing Needs to Respond to Climate ChangeIt is not just language issues and political volatility that outsourcers need to think about when selling delivery services to enterprises in developed locations. The issue of natural disasters and infrastructure reliability is a consideration that is certain to gain prominence among procurement officers ... read more..

Apple Bids to Acquire AuthenTec and Bring Enhanced Security to iOSApple has made a bid to acquire AuthenTec, a mobile encryption and security specialist. This acquisition is notable not just because Apple finds it notoriously difficult to spend its growing cash pile, but also because AuthenTec inked a deal in ... read more..

It's Time to Understand the Organisational Catalysts for Cloud AdoptionCloud services have been debated for many years, but it is now time to stop discussing theory and start discussing the actual experiences of early adopters. Why is it that some agencies embrace cloud services while others do not? Ovum recently ... read more..

APM Tools Market Revitalised by Agile, DevOps and the CloudThe application performance management (APM) tools market is undergoing a period of revitalisation as a result of the waves of agile development and its near-sibling, DevOps, as well as cloud computing, virtualisation and mobile device adoption, and technical innovation within the ... read more..

Operating IT in Harmony with How the Business WorksAs the IT environment becomes increasingly more complex, one challenge faced by many CIOs is understanding how all the different technologies relate to one another. The demand for increased velocity of business in terms of both process and development has created the ... read more..

Physical Convergence of Servers and Storage EmergesInfrastructure convergence is an established trend that so far has been driven by the increasing complexity and interdependence of virtualised servers, networks and storage. This has created a demand for pre-integrated data centre building blocks that combine all these elements. Less than three years ... read more..