Channel Research

Michael Dell’s Cloud Integration Strategy Is Dell Boomi

• October 11, 2011

When Michael Dell keynotes Dell World (Oct. 12-14, Austin, Texas), he’ll come armed with Dell Boomi — the company’s cloud integration service. Michael keeps claiming that Dell is more than a PC company. With a little luck and a lot of execution, Boomi may allow Dell to prove that claim to cloud services providers (CSPs), customers […]

Google Cloud SQL: Bringing Databases to App Engine ISVs

• October 11, 2011

Google has quietly rolled out a free limited preview of Google Cloud SQL, enabling ISVs to develop applications powered by traditional databases on the Google App Engine platform-as-a-service offering. Of course, you probably could have guessed that from the name. In the official blog entry, Google’s Scott Knaster explained the much-requested Google Cloud SQL brings database […]

Memo to MSPs: Demand Open APIs for Cloud Services

• October 7, 2011

As you pursue a cloud services strategy, customers will likely call on you to integrate multiple cloud services into a single solution. How can you begin that journey? For starters, you should demand open APIs (application programming interfaces) from each of your cloud partners.

Cloud Storage: Amazon S3 Gets Server-Side Encryption

• October 6, 2011

The Amazon S3 storage cloud is upping its security game, bringing easy server-side encryption to customer data. All it takes to leverage the so-called Amazon S3 Server Side Encryption (SSE), according to the Amazon Web Services blog entry, is adding a request header when writing data to the S3 cloud. When the data is retrieved, […]

OpenStack Foundation: Protecting the Open Cloud Standard

• October 5, 2011

Symantec Cloud Survey: Customers Think Cloud Boosts Security

• October 5, 2011

Despite any number of outages and data breaches, a new study by Symantec shows as many as 87 percent of organizations think moving to cloud infrastructure will improve their overall security (or at least leave it unchanged). But at the same time, Symantec’s findings indicate security remains a roadblock to general cloud adoption — and […]

Google Cloud Transformation Program: Helping CSPs Help Customers?

• October 5, 2011

Google is making a play for the large enterprise cloud market with the launch of the Google Cloud Transformation Program, a partner initiative that gives a few high-profile Google Apps Authorized Resellers the ability to offer customers customized cloud solutions on the search giant’s own platform. While most of Google’s partner efforts have revolved around […]

Capgemini, Sybase Partner on Mobile Management as a Service

• September 28, 2011

Cloud service provider and system integrator Capgemini has partnered with SAP-owned Sybase to host SaaS and PaaS versions of the Sybase Managed Mobility portfolio. Through partnership, Sybase extends its solutions to the cloud and Capgemini adds management for the burgeoning number of enterprise mobile devices to its portfolio. According to the press release, the specific […]

Evolven, OpSource Partner on Cloud Configuration Solutions

• September 14, 2011

Evolven and OpSource have announced their partnership to help businesses improve the stability, performance and availability of their cloud services. The agreement makes Evolven an OpSource Verified Cloud Solution Provider, a label that reassures customers Evolven’s solutions are running on the OpSource cloud platform. Evolven jumped into the deal to take advantage of the OpSource […]

CA Technologies: Connecting the Cloud Services Dots for MSPs?

• September 13, 2011

Sometime in Q4 2011, CA Technologies expects to launch its ARCserve backup and restore platform in Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud. But that’s only a small piece of the larger cloud services story that’s emerging over at CA. I’m not suggesting that the cloud can make CA a hyper-growth company. But channel partners should start studying […]

Cloud Data Centers: SAS 70 Is Dead, Long Live SSAE 16 Audits

• September 12, 2011

I keep hearing from managed services providers and data center providers that brag about achieving SAS 70 compliance. But here’s the problem: SAS 70 is a dying (or dead…) auditing and compliance standard, replaced by SSAE 16. Some data center providers have already jumped on the SSAE 16 bandwagon, and more will certainly join the […]

Microsoft Office 365 Suffers Late-Night Cloud Service Outage

• September 9, 2011

The Microsoft Office 365 cloud productivity suite — as well as other Microsoft cloud offerings like Windows Live Skydrive and Hotmail — was hit with a widespread service outage affecting users across the globe for as long as three hours. The TalkinCloud team was in bed for most of it, but it seems that the […]

Google Docs Service Restored After Users Experience List Issue

• September 7, 2011

Updated, 6:38 p.m. eastern: Google Docs and Google Drawings have suffered some sort of cloud service issue in recent hours. But the service has now been restored. We don’t want to sensationalize the situation — this could be an extremely isolated event or something more. Frankly, it’s too early to say. According to a Google […]

rPath Launches Cloud App Engine, Channel Strategy at VMworld

• September 7, 2011

Automation solution specialist rPath used VMworld 2011 in Las Vegas as a coming-out party, embarking on a new channel strategy centered around the new rPath Cloud Application Engine. Read on for the details … “The big story around VMworld is that everyone is spinning up new infrastructure faster than ever but they’re forgetting about the […]

Dreamforce ’11: Some Final Cloud Thoughts

• September 7, 2011

Your humble correspondent is over his cold, sitting over a cup of coffee at home and trying to unwind after Salesforce.com‘s Dreamforce ’11. It was, without a doubt, the strangest cloud computing industry event I’ve ever covered. Here are some of my final stray observations from the Dreamforce ’11 show floor. It’s not that Salesforce’s partners […]