In the Know: Top 5 Must-Read Cloud Stories, Jan. 23

Talkin’ Cloud at the end of each day pulls out five must-read cloud computing stories from the news cycle for its readers to review in the morning. Today’s column features Red Hat (RHT), Vodafone (VOD) and Google (GOOG).

Some of these stories have been gathered from Talkin’ Cloud’s article database, while others have been collected from elsewhere. If we missed something, feel free to leave a comment below. We might just add it into the mix.

Here’s today’s list of must-read cloud computing stories.

Red Hat Exec Says Security Makes Paying for Open Source Software Worth It. In the wake of Heartbleed, Shellshock and other security and data privacy fiascos, Red Hat is emphasizing the value of its subscription software support for open source platforms, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The company’s vice president of Customer Engagement and Experience, Marco Bill-Peter, homed in on the security dimension of subscription-based software support as a leading reason to become a paying Red Hat customer.

With security being one of the top tech challenges in 2015, Red Hat’s rationale seems to be on point. How can one make money off of Open Source? Try adding security as a value proposition for your customers. It might just work.

Vodafone CTO Steve Pusey Announces Retirement Plans. Vodafone CTO Stephen Pusey on Thursday announced his plans to retire from the telecommunications company after leading its global technology strategy for more eight years. His decision will become effective on the last day of June of this year.

Johan Wilberg, who is currently executive vice president and head of the Networks segment at Ericsson, a mobile broadband Internet communications company, will be Pusey’s successor. At Ericsson, Wilberg led his segment’s business strategy, R&D, product management and sales.

Click here for Talkin’ Cloud’s Top 100 CSP list

Google Compute Engine Local SSD Exits Beta. Every cloud provider and its mother seems to be turning to solid state disks (SSDs) to provide customers and partners with a higher performance storage option on virtual machines. Google has now officially introduced its Local SSD option on Google Compute Engine.

Kirill Tropin, a Google product manager, in a blog post said the beta release of Local SSD was well-received (but why wouldn’t he say that?). Designed mainly for highly demanding applications that provide their own replication, the Google Local SSD option is also meant for scratch space for intense computational applications.

Five tips to secure your cloud future. Not sure which security features should a CSP be offering its customers? William Rabie, Cloud Business Director at CenturyLink Technology Solutions (CTL), provides five tips to secure your cloud future. According to him, reliance on the cloud as a central storage tool highlights the importance of security.

Box CEO Aaron Levie’s top 10 snarkiest Tweets. Hate him or love him, Box CEO Aaaron Levie isn’t afraid to speak his mind. Network World’s Brandon Butler says Levie’s tweets are “snarky, brutally honest and clever.” With Box launching its IPO today, Butler takes a look at some of Box’s CEO’s top tweets. Which ones are your favorites?

Follow CJ Arlotta on Twitter @cjarlotta and Google+ for further updates on the story above — or if you just want to say hello.