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A post by Eric Hanselman, WAN and Cloud Networking Track Track Chair.

With all of the enthusiasm for the compute and storage aspects of cloud capabilities, it’s easy to take the networks that bind them together for granted.  Networks haven’t been a very visible part of early cloud computing deployments, but they’re critical to effectively leveraging cloud’s advantages and ensuring success in implementations. Networks take on new forms and characteristics in cloudy deployments, too. There’s increased flexibility, but also a dependence on the cloud provider’s network designs. That dependence can make a transition from typical enterprise network architectures a challenge.  Understanding the differences can help smooth the way to being able to take advantage of the many benefits of cloudy worlds. Continue Reading »

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cloud cloud adoption cloud computing cloud connect networking WAN

A blog post by Infrastructure Track Chair, Bernard Golden, Vice President, Enterprise Solutions, enStratus Networks.

The concept of cloud computing is simple: computing resources offered across the network via self-service, providing elastic capacity from a resource pool carrying no long-term commitment and paid for on a per-use basis.

As the old saying goes: simple, but not easy. Providing cloud computing services requires a transformation in both infrastructure and operations processes, and this transformation is affecting all parts of the traditional computing infrastructure. Continue Reading »

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Architecture cloud cloud adoption cloud computing cloud connect infrastructure networking Performance and Availability private clouds

I’m not sure what the answer to that question is, but that’s why I’ll be at Cloud Connect to find out.  I plan to attend the panel discussion from the keynote stage covering the hot topic of open source, which will be moderated by the highly acclaimed venture capitalist, Ann Winblad, Co-founder and Managing Director of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.  Ann most recently was quoted in Wall Street Journal’s All Things D around IBM’s announcement that all of its cloud services and software will be based on an open cloud architecture. Good news for IBM customers, bad news for VMware’s vCloud or Citrix’s CloudStack, and representative that OpenStack is a key component to the software-defined data center.  As such, it only makes sense to bring an expert to the stage, from a firm that has had a long-term investment interest in open source software and open standards, to further discuss.  Ann will be joined by panelists from Citrix, CloudOps and Red Hat on Thursday, April 4 during the event.  Join me and we can find out together if clouds are indeed, the gateway drug.

But we can’t stop there because besides the excitement of welcoming Ann Winblad to the main stage, Cloud Connect also just announced their expanded keynote line-up, which includes the likes of Margaret Dawson of HP Cloud Services, Jim Davies of Mitel, Kit Colbert of VMWare and more. An impressive line-up of industry visionaries helping shape the cloud computing industry today.  And with a finger on the pulse of all key cloud computing trends – like big data, open source and PaaS – Cloud Connect has a new addition to the program: DEPLOYCON 2013, produced by Rishidot Research LLC, will be a one-day workshop on Tuesday covering all things PaaS.  DEPLOYCON is intended to bring together CIOs, enterprise managers, IT and developers to discuss how organizations can better leverage Platform Services to enable IT transformation to agile IT.

It’s a chocked-full line-up and will most likely make for a jam-packed schedule.  Cloud Connect is just over two weeks out, happening the first week of April, and with so much happening in the industry, you don’t want to miss it.  Time to start building your schedule now!

Joylyn Tanner
Senior Communications Manager
UBM Tech

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Citrix cloud cloud adoption cloud computing cloud connect CloudOps OpenStack Wall Street Journal

Jared Wray is founder and CTO of Tier 3. Jared founded Tier 3 in 2006 and today is the visionary architect of the company’s enterprise-class cloud management platform. To enable customers moving to IT as a Service, Jared has architected Tier 3’s cloud with advanced automation, orchestration, and fabric services. As the originator of the Iron Foundry open source PaaS project, Wray is a thought leader in the evolution of enterprise cloud services. A serial entrepreneur, Wray previously founded Dual, an interactive development firm with clients such as Microsoft and Nintendo.

Here is an inside peek at his sessions at Cloud Connect:

• New Tools and Techniques for Managing Hybrid Cloud Environments
  • Adopting public and private cloud resources is becoming imperative for enterprises across nearly every industry in order to keep pace with escalating customer and end-user demands and intensifying competition. However, adding these Cloud resources to existing systems and software compounds the challenge of managing these complex operations and optimizing their performance while controlling their costs. This session will examine these challenges and discuss exciting new technologies and management best practices that can help IT professionals overcome these challenges.
• Hybrid Cloud – Can You Get the Best of Both Cloud Worlds
  • There are strong pros and cons to both Public and Private Clouds. Many enterprises like the idea of either one or both, but the realities have not lived up to the ideal. This session will explore the pros and cons of private and public clouds, including the best use cases and scenarios for private, public and hybrid cloud initiatives, the financial implications, and whether/how hybrid clouds might give the best of both clouds.

Register with priority code SMCCBlog and save up to $300* on your Cloud Connect All Access or Conference Pass.

*Discount calculated based on the on-site price and not combinable with other offers. Offer good on new registrations only. Prices after discount applied: All Access: $2,099.00 Conference: $1,699.00, Workshop: 799.00, Expo Plus: $150.00,
Expo Only: Free

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cloud cloud adoption cloud computing cloud connect CTO hybrid clouds private clouds Tier 3

Cloud Connect offers several flexible passes to choose from when registering. Here are my top 8 reasons (in reverse order) why you purchase a Cloud Connect All Access Pass:

8. Free Lunch! Nom nom nom

7. Make the most of your Cloud Connect experience by joining any of the following receptions or networking events.

6. Expo: See what’s new, learn what’s cutting edge and identify technology must-haves for your business.

5. Vendor Sessions

4. Keynotes: Learn from industry experts, peers and providers all sharing their insights, case studies and strategies – hear from PayPal, VMware, General Electric, Cisco and more.

3. Cloud Connect offers a variety of comprehensive workshops on both standards and emerging trends from recognized thought-leaders in the cloud space.

2. Conference Sessions: Learn about the latest cloud computing innovations at the Cloud Connect Conference—including Big Data, Infrastructure, Cloud Security, and more.

1. Save $300! Register with priority code SMBlog and save up to $300* on your Interop All Access or Conference Pass!

Lock in an All Access Pass for the best value and receive behind the scene access to Cloud Connect!

Cheers,

Jason

Feel free to follow me on Twitter for more inside Cloud Connect updates.
*Discount calculated based on the on-site price and not combinable with other offers. Offer good on new registrations only. Prices after discount applied: All Access: $2,099.00 Conference: $1,699.00, Workshop Pass: $799.00, Expo Plus: $150.00, Expo Only: Free

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IT professionals today are dealing with a lot of challenges to make sure that their department is running in an efficient and productive manner. Staying up with the latest releases of products, putting out small fires within their organization, keeping their data centers cool and of course the cloud, which is constantly hanging overhead. LOB executives want to make sure their organization is prepared for the future in terms of IT productivity and the words they keep hearing are: The Cloud! I’m pretty sure Sys Admins cringe every time those words are mentioned, but they do know it is an important aspect to their IT framework.  However there are so many types of cloud computing deployment models to consider, that it can make your head feel like a cloud. Here are a few examples of cloud computing deployment models that are out there right now: Continue Reading »

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adoption Architecture cloud cloud adoption cloud computing cloud connect IaaS PaaS private clouds utility computing

Matt Quinn has been with TIBCO for 14 years. During this time he has had several worldwide roles. As CTO, Quinn works with all product groups to create a common, corporate-wide vision for all of TIBCO’s products and technologies; ensures interoperability between TIBCO’s various products families, as well as consistent architectural approaches across all groups; and provides overall leadership and coordination of TIBCO’s product plans and technology direction. Up until his new role as CTO, Quinn has been responsible for the Composite Application Group (CAG). This group encompasses TIBCO’s SOA, BPM, Infrastructure, Monitoring and Management, Governance and User Experience technologies. This group is responsible end-to-end for the engineering, quality, delivery of product, product vision, and customer enablement. Earlier in his TIBCO career, Quinn was a global architect, responsible for the delivery of some of TIBCO’s largest implementations in diverse areas such as transportation and logistics, energy and finance. This was a hands-on role, building real systems architecture for production customers.

Here is an inside peek at his session at Cloud Connect – Creating Self-Service, Actionable Context in a World of Massive Unstructured Data Sources

• With the rise of social and more recently, the Internet of Things, the opportunity to take advantage of unstructured and imperfect data has never been greater…or more challenging. Adding to the mix, the need to allow business to self-serve their data needs is key to keeping the enterprise agile and efficient. We’ll look at how self-service, actionable context, understanding and action can be achieved in today’s environment of unthinkably large, diverse and often messy data.

Register with priority code SMCCBlog and save up to $300* on your Cloud Connect All Access or Conference Pass.

*Discount calculated based on the on-site price and not combinable with other offers. Offer good on new registrations only. Prices after discount applied: All Access: $2,099.00 Conference: $1,699.00, Workshop: 799.00, Expo Plus: $150.00, Expo Only: Free

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big data cloud cloud computing cloud connect Tibco

A post by John Pironti, Risk Management and Security Track Chair.

Cloud computing is no longer an interesting idea or concept to be investigated by most organizations but reality that is now part of their normal business activities. It is well understood through numerous studies and analysis that security is currently the primary roadblock that prevents organizations from widely adopting cloud computing capabilities for their core and critical business activities. This situation creates an interesting scenario that is similar to the theory of the unstoppable object (Cloud Computing) and the Immovable Object (Security) and what happens when they must coexist and thrive. The capability that will ultimately help organizations to solve this challenge is the use of information risk management. Continue Reading »

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Our editors at Network Computing recently published an interesting Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service Providers. This extremely helpful buyer’s guide includes information on 17 of the top IaaS vendors in the market and includes a features matrix of more than 60 decision points to help you make the right decision for your business.

Our own Cloud Connect and Everest Group Research shows that companies are increasingly looking at public IaaS options with 31% of our survey respondents indicating they already use public IaaS and an additional 49% indicating near and long-term plans for adoption.  So what’s driving the move to public IaaS?

Network Computing writes:

The IaaS product category has taken off because moving computing capacity to the cloud allows companies to focus on their core competencies rather than worry about buying, deploying and maintaining hardware. IaaS is why Instagram sold at a $1 billion valuation with only 13 employees, and why Pinterest served nearly 12 million monthly unique visitors with only 16 employees. For many companies, IaaS — and public cloud services overall — can yield significant benefits, but with an ever-growing number of providers, it can be difficult to know which will be the best choice. This comparison will help IT professionals make a more informed decision about which IaaS vendor to select. –Joe Masters Emison

This is also a topic we’ll explore in-depth at the upcoming Cloud Connect Conference in Silicon Valley including this newly added workshop on Amazon Web Services:

Amazon Web Services Training: Jumpstart Your Cloud Computing Knowledge Base

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the pioneer of cloud computing and its unstoppable growth dominates the industry. If you want – or are under pressure — to begin using AWS, this workshop is for you. Both fundamental and advanced AWS services are discussed during the workshop, ensuring that you gain a complete overview of the AWS service. The instructor will provide a live demonstration of the AWS system and management console during the workshop to allow you to see the power of AWS. The workshop is presented in a highly interactive fashion to address any questions you have about AWS.

Be sure to download the guide and we’ll see you at Cloud Connect Silicon Valley!

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Buyer's Guide cloud cloud computing IaaS Network Computing

Cloud Computing was supposed to usher in an era of computing on demand. However what we have today is a mix of the old and new – difficult to scale compute resources and billing models that penalize consumption based billing, both of which are only as granular as a preset server size and hourly or yearly based billing.

In this upcoming Cloud Connect webcast we’ll review how we got here, where the architectures of our applications are and how they fit to today’s cloud. We’ll also look at common IaaS packaging models, billing models and how new innovations are driving a more “true” cloud model and how future application architectures will take advantage of the next generation cloud computing architectures. We will discuss how to optimize cloud architectures to maximize infrastructure and control costs for today’s and tomorrow’s cloud computing platforms.

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Time: 11:00 am PT/2:00 pm ET
Sponsored by ProfitBricks
Presented by Cloud Connect
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Join Joe Weinman, noted cloud-computing expert and author of Cloudonomics and Pete Johnson, Platform Evangelist at ProfitBricks for a lively discussion and practical takeaways on cloud architectures and cost modeling.

*** Register now for this free webcast ***

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Presenters:

Joe Weinman, Author, Cloudonomics and Senior Vice President, Telx

Pete Johnson, Platform Evangelist, ProfitBricks

Moderator:

Steve Wylie, General Manager, Cloud Connect

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architectures cloud computing cloud connect IaaS infrastructure ProfitBricks