Prevent downtime, protect data and ensure continuous business operations When Hurricane Ike slammed into the Gulf Coast in September 2008, it put business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) programs to the ultimate test. Beyond the devastating impact of the storm itself, power outages extended across three states and lasted for several days, forcing many businesses to rely on backup systems for business-critical data and network connectivity—and shutting others down entirely. But it’s not just hurricanes, fire or other disasters that can bring a business to its knees. Everyday problems such as bad software, misconfigured networks, hardware failures or power outages
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Ubuntu Cloud: The Reseller Opportunity As market conditions remain uncertain, your customers are looking for new, more cost-effective ways to do business. This is dramatically increasing demand for cloud computing solutions that promise big savings on in-house infrastructure and management. By supporting your customers’ journeys into the cloud, you can generate new service revenues and take on the role of a trusted cloud adviser. Specifically, you can: • Support customer migrations from dedicated to cloud-based infrastructure • Deliver consultancy for building and deploying public and private clouds • Provide capacity planning, infrastructure management and monitoring services • Roll out authentication
The Business Case for Project Portfolio Management The expression “better, faster, cheaper” is commonly associated with supply chain initiatives, where companies have developed an edge by getting products to market faster and more efficiently than their competitors. However, in the new world of cloud computing, more companies are looking at their IT department as a competitive differentiator by enabling them to quickly deploy hosted applications that can level the playing field with larger, established competitors. The expansion of cloud-based and hosted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions has enabled companies from the Fortune 500 to Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) to seek out
To the Cloud? – Developing a Cloud Migration Strategy Following the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference last year, it became pretty clear that cloud computing had risen to dominance. This was going to be the next big thing, and following Microsoft’s lead, the concept of “cloud” rose to the top of everyone’s mind. So it was no surprise Microsoft soon after launched a huge ad campaign that included national television spots and placements in high profile mags such as Wired. With the prominence of cloud established, the question has now become, when you hear that cute little couple in the airport
What Does the US Military Want from Cloud Computing? Polytetraflouroethylene or PTFE was an exotic substance accidentally invented by DuPont chemist Dr. Roy Plunkett in 1938. In spite of its less-than-ordinary origins, PTFE was found to have some extraordinary properties – high heat resistance, high corrosion resistance and the lowest coefficient of friction of any substance yet manufactured. At the height of WWII, its composition was a closely guarded secret, but today we know it as Teflon. The reason behind this anecdote is to demonstrate the close relation between science and the military. After all, many of the greatest advances
Saving Money on Rent by Going on the Cloud “In Washington, the first thing people tell you is what their job is. In Los Angeles you learn their star sign. In Houston you’re told how rich they are. And in New York they tell you what their rent is.” – Simon Hoggart, English journalist and broadcaster. In the wake of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, properties, both commercial and domestic, considerably depreciated in value. However, the recovery, at least for commercial property, has been quick. According to a recent report released by global real estate consultants Cushman & Wakefield, office space
White Paper Disaster Recovery and the Cloud: New solutions for offsite data protection The typical backup model adopted by most companies is fairly simple: once a week, the business’s data servers are copied to magnetic tape. Incremental changes are backed up as the week progresses. In general, a full week’s tape set is regularly sent offsite. Some businesses may back up to disk as well as tape, keeping the disks local and the tapes offsite – some may abandon tape entirely and find an alternative offsite storage plan. While details vary, what remains consistent is that in the event of
Amazon Web Services Deployment The Right Way In general, when considering all things “cloud” it’s healthy to retain a skeptical mind set and avoid succumbing to hype. But the fallout from the recent Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage is actually a very positive sign for Cloud Computing. Sure some sites got taken completely down, including a favorite of many, Quora. However, another popular site managed to survive the incident with comparatively minor hiccups: Netflix. This is the bright spot the cloud community should examine. As with many other leading websites, Keynote monitors the performance of certain transactions at Netflix.com. According
