Cloud Computing Digest

Happy 2012 folks! I took some time off over the holidays to recharge my batteries and it appears to be paying off. It’s been slow getting back into things but today I’m feeling good and ready to focus on knocking out some of my todo’s. First off my list today, a new Cloud Computing Digest.

Fellow Azure MVP Roger Jennings got to take a peek at HP’s new hosted cloud services. In this post, he walks through the sign-up and provisioning process. A nice starting point with plenty of screen shots if you’re curious but don’t have time to explore it yourself.

I think this is a first in that I have an update that’s a YouTube link. It’s an interview with an executive at Lionsgate Entertainment (the movie company) for their innovative cloud usage. I always tell people that any industry could use cloud, and it’s nice to see yet another example supporting it.

James Urquhart, whom I’ve linked to several times, has started posting at GIGAOM. Recently, this included an editorial on why it’s hard to talk about cloud. Some of this is about terminology; some of it is about the way we look at managing things. Regardless, it’s some good food for thought.

Office 365 has been criticized, especially in the EU for its data privacy challenges. However, it was recently announced that Office 365 complies with Data Protection and Security standards in both the EU and US.  They also updated the web site for this information, trust.office365.com to make this information more accessible.

I’ve beaten this dead horse a few times, SLA from vendors. They’re sometimes confusing, and most times not very worthwhile. But maybe we need an industry standard for this? At least that’s what Michelle Boisvert asks in her editorial.

From across the pond, comes news that Microsoft is leveraging open source solutions to help compete with the Linux based public cloud providers. As pricing continues to be driven down by competition, it’s going to be features that differentiate vendors. Microsoft is trying to partner with open source solutions to help bring them into the Windows Azure fold.

The Google App implementation for the City of Los Angeles is back in the news. After months of delays, the Los Angeles Police Department has pulled the plug. This doesn’t appear to mean that Google Apps is out of the city entirely, just that it wasn’t able to meet the needs several departments and subsequently they have been removed from the contract. Regardless, it is still a blow to cloud adoption.

To close out this first digest of 2012, I’ll share a 2012 outlook from Network World. They see a growth in migration services and mobile device management and monitoring. We’ll also see more services being released to help speed adoption of the cloud solutions by leveraging value added services. As education on cloud capabilities, limitations, and opportunities continues to grow, there should also be a removal of some barriers to adoption, thus helping cloud computing to continue to grow even faster in 2012 than it did in 2011.

I’m on the road next week attending/presenting at the CodeMash conference in Sandusky, OH. So I’m not sure I’ll get another update out. If you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to stop by and say hi.

Until next time!