Mac News: SaaS

Pumping Up Performance in Densely Packed Data Centers
November 08, 2009

Data center consolidation and modernization of IT systems help enterprises reduce cost, cut labor, slash energy use, and become more agile. Infrastructure advancements, standardization, performance density, and network services efficiencies are all allowing for bigger and fewer data centers and strategically architected and located facilities that can efficiently carry more of the total IT requirements load.

Droid Lurches to Life
November 06, 2009

Today is the day of the Droid. The Motorola smartphone touches down today in what's shaping up to be one of the biggest handset launches in recent memory. Of course Verizon is going all-in as far as advertising is concerned, but there's more to the Droid's story than a marketing campaign.

Headed for the Clouds - Cisco, EMC and VMware Launch VCE Coalition
November 05, 2009

By and large, IT favors grand pronouncements and overheated rhetoric, and the industry abounds with "unprecedented" efforts firmly rooted in precedent and "unique" solutions fashioned from the commonest clay. Is that the case with Cisco, EMC and VMware's new Virtual Computing Environment coalition? Decidedly not.

Pre-integration is the Ticket With Cisco-EMC Cloud Venture
November 04, 2009

Cisco is broadening its footprint with a major move into the cloud computing space. The company has formed a far-reaching partnership with EMC -- a joint venture in which VMware, a majority owned subsidiary of EMC, will also play a large role. Called "Acadia," the new entity is marketing vBlock infrastructure packages, aka "vBlocks."

Yahoo Lets FOSS Community Drive Its Traffic Server
November 04, 2009

In a move that resembles a major food vendor giving away its prize recipe -- minus the secret sauce -- to all of its customers and competitors, Yahoo on Monday donated the source code for its Traffic Server software to the Apache Software Foundation through the Apache Incubator Project.

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.