From the Editor

SOA & Cloud Bootcamp: Comparing Cloud Computing Providers

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:45:00 EDT

If your business relies on the speedy resolution of an issue from your cloud provider, then test them before you try. Send them that email out-of-hours to see how quickly and how useful the reply actually is. Try and reach someone on the phone. Look around the forums to see how many questions are left unanswered.

SOA & Cloud Bootcamp: Who Ya Gonna Call? Cloudbusters!

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EDT

As the theme tune to the classic 1984 Ghostbusters movie goes, "If there's something strange, in your neighborhood, Who ya gonna call?", I am left wondering what we'll all be singing (shouting?) when something goes wrong in our cloud world. When you've got your whole business in the cloud and there is an outage, just what happens to your bottom line? What happens to your customers? What do you do?

Social Media Terrorists

Tue, 26 May 2009 08:00:00 EDT

"Mass psychology" scientists study this kind of phenomena and the "mass psychology of fascism" is of course the most famous lab case. The extraordinary experience SYS-CON Media lived through became part of a Forbes Magazine investigative cover story called "Attack of the Blogs" that found that "Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo." The lies, libel and invective we are living through today is another such episode. Our partners, readers and the industry in general know the facts and what's going on but in a rare example like the email below, we can't be sure if everyone is on the same page as the rest of us.

SOA World Expo: Virtualization-in-a-Box?

Fri, 08 May 2009 20:30:00 EDT

Earlier this month I attended the IBM Impact conference in Las Vegas. The core theme of Impact was "Smart SOA" and how cloud computing comes together in the enterprise, with the emphasis on private clouds. The core notion of private clouds for IBM is really about extending their experience in virtualization, which is vast, into the more modern world of cloud computing. They hope to sell some hardware and software in the process.

Clouds Do Blow Away - Live With It

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:45:00 EDT

If you were to believe the hype from the media and certain so called industry experts, you would be forgiven for thinking that cloud computing is the second coming. The answer to all our scaling and usage problems. Everything to everyone. The notion that the "cloud" is always on, or up, is a myth that is being propogated, irresponsibly, around the corridors of tech. As they say, what goes up must come down and software is no different.

Twenty-One Experts Define Cloud Computing

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 06:15:00 EST

It is the infrastructural paradigm shift that is sweeping across the Enterprise IT world, but how is it best defined? I refer of course to 'Cloud Computing' - the phenomenon that has as many definitions as there are squares on a chess-board. To try and narrow it down we bring here a round-up of some recent attempts to bring welcome precision where there risks being unnecessary vagueness.

The Future of Cloud Computing

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:18:00 EST

As new offerings like Amazon's CloudFront, Microsoft's Azure, and VMware's vCloud are rolled out, the worldwide cloud computing momentum continues to grow. Here, SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Journal surveys a globe-girdling network of leading infrastructure experts, IT industry executives and technology commentators for their views on The Shape of Cloud Computing To Come.

Cloud Computing Is Coming of Age

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 05:20:00 EST

SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Journal seeks to boost your understanding of Cloud Computing concepts and to bring you the latest news, views, and developments - but we couldn't do so without our amazing high-energy pool of contributors, including many of the hard-working executives driving some of today's most successful Cloud strategies, technologies and techniques.

i-Technology Predictions for 2009

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:10:00 EST

Every year SYS-CON polls the Internet technologies community and asks them to share their thoughts on what's around the corner in the world of i-Technology and Web-based enterprise. The main themes were very clear. Cassatt Corporation's CEO Bill Coleman, for example - famous in a former life for being the 'B' in BEA Systems - is adamant that 2009 is going to be The Year of Cloud.

Cloud Computing Journal: Current Themes & Topics

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:30:00 EST

From Amazon EC2 and App Engine from Google to Utility Computing, Virtualization, and Walled Gardens - there's no aspect of Cloud Computing that hasn't already been addressed at some level of detail in SYS-CON Media's Cloud Computing Journal (www.cloudcomputing.sys-con.com). Here's a round-up of the world of Delivering Scalable IT as a Service, seen through the lens of the many contributors whose thoughts and ideas have already appeared there since it first appeared in June 2008 as the world's first journal devoted exclusively to the delivery of massively scalable IT resources as a service using Internet technologies.

Is Google the Elephant in the Cloud?

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 09:30:00 EST

While cloud computing reporting has recently been focused on Microsoft's Azure announcement and Amazon's upgrade to EC2, there's an elephant in the cloud: Google. According to a well-researched article in SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Journal, Google filed as long ago as February 2006 a provisional patent application with 91 different numbered claims that arguably makes it clear that Google has a multi-year lead in cloud computing.