Linux News: SaaS

Where SOA Meets the Cloud
November 01, 2009

Dave Linthicum's new book, Cloud Computing and SOA Convergence in Your Enterprise: A Step-by-Step Guide, has just arrived and digs into the conflation of SOA and cloud computing. We're here with Dave, and just Dave this time, to dig into the conflation of SOA and cloud computing. "SOA is the way to do cloud," he said.

City of Angels to Give Cloud Computing a Go
October 28, 2009

The Los Angeles City Council voted 12-0 on Tuesday to adopt Google Apps, which include Gmail and other office software tools, for its 30,000 employees. The deal places Los Angeles among the vanguard of public sector operations relying on cloud-based productivity software. Plans call for installation of the system by June, when a pilot project will begin.

SFA May Be Mature, but It's About to Have a Growth Spurt
October 26, 2009

Sales force automation -- nimble, lightweight and usually mobile -- seems to have little in common with its staid parent, enterprise resource planning. Until you consider this: After years of widespread adoption, SFA has also become mature -- but in its own way. Yet the space is not remaining static.

Building ERP at the Speed of Web
October 25, 2009

I had the pleasure to recently sit down with Workday's cofounder and coCEO, Aneel Bhusri, who is responsible for the company's overall strategy and day-to-day operations. Bhusri, who also helped bring PeopleSoft to huge success, explains how Workday is raising the bar on employee life-cycle productivity by lowering IT costs through the SaaS model for full enterprise resource planning.

Oracle Fusion in Context
October 20, 2009

With the introduction of Fusion applications, Oracle has joined the cloud community. You might want to argue that the company has been involved in the cloud for many years as one of the key technology underpinnings of many of the biggest SaaS companies. That was one of Larry Ellison's big points at the Churchill Club.

Sailing Toward the New Supply Chain Management World
October 19, 2009

You might say that supply chain management has entered the philosophical realm. SCM investment has flatlined to a large extent, and the market's focus has changed as supply chain headaches become more complex and cut a broader swath. Although there is no one compelling trend in the SCM space, cost optimization and fulfillment are becoming top priorities.

Is Your E-Commerce Operation Ready for the Cloud?
October 19, 2009

Cloud computing is perhaps the most talked-about shift in the technology industry today. The concept of running applications from the cloud is quickly evolving from a futuristic vision to a commercially viable alternative for mainstream business. A recent survey of global 2,000 companies revealed that 30 percent are already using cloud infrastructure to host their applications.

From Virtualization to Cloud Computing: The Great Leap Forward
October 18, 2009

How should IT leaders scale virtualized environments so that they can be managed for elasticity payoffs? What should be taking place in virtualized environments now to get them ready for cloud efficiencies and capabilities later? And how do service-oriented architecture, governance, and adaptive infrastructure approaches relate to this progression?

Analyst: Don't Blame the Sidekick Mess on the Cloud
October 16, 2009

Although the T-Mobile Sidekick data disaster caused much gnashing of teeth among the device's users this week, the incident might not represent as dark a blotch on the concept of cloud computing as it may seem. Sidekick users lost all their data, which is stored on the infrastructure of Danger, the company that developed the Sidekick and is now owned by Microsoft.

Sidekick Data Rises From the Ashes
October 15, 2009

T-Mobile and Microsoft susidiary Danger have restored the data Sidekick customers lost when Danger experienced a massive server failure last week. The company announced the news via an online forum used to keep customers apprised of developments. The companies also provided a few sparse details about the meltdowns.

The Salesforce Cloud
October 14, 2009

In the continuing discussion of cloud computing, Salesforce.com occupies a unique place. While most cloud vendors have kept to one component of cloud computing, Salesforce has inserted itself into all areas, and the company is using its flagship CRM applications as its first case example.

Sidekick Users Burned by Danger in the Cloud
October 12, 2009

Users of T-Mobile's smartphone, the Sidekick, suddenly found themselves without address books, calendars, to-do lists and photos -- data that the carrier had been maintaining through a subsidiary of Microsoft called "Danger," which hosts back-end services for mobile companies.

Privacy in the Public Cloud: Q&A With Terremark Exec Jason Lochhead
October 12, 2009

When Amazon began offering cheap pay-as-you-go access to computing resources in the cloud to the public, it broke new ground. Independent developers, small businesses and individual departments of large businesses leaped at the chance to work on projects while keeping infrastructure costs down.

Gearing Up for the Project Management Explosion
October 12, 2009

The economic stimulus assistance injected into major industrial countries to counter the effects of a global recession shone a spotlight on the need to rebuild their infrastructures. The need to manage such public works investments efficiently has generated a huge potential market for project management software and related services.

Redefining the Value of Cloud
October 09, 2009

One of the biggest challenges in today's rapidly evolving cloud computing market, if you're an aspiring vendor, is how to clearly differentiate your offerings in an increasingly competitive environment. This is especially difficult because of the Web's knack for sucking the value out of everything it touches.

Shortage, Abundance and Synthetic Relationships
October 07, 2009

As luck would have it, I knew nothing about Larry Ellison's rant at the Churchill Club on Sept. 21 about cloud computing when I wrote last week's piece on cloud computing. I saw it on YouTube. You have to admit that Larry is a heck of a showman, and the video is fun to watch.