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Where insights are transformed into actions at the intersection of collaboration, information management, security, and business strategy.

Open-Source A.W.S.: Creating a Thousand Clouds – NYTimes.com

For those inclined to make private AWS cloud clones

“Like Amazon or not, they are the de facto standard for cloud,” says Marten Mickos, the chief executive of Eucalyptus. “It’s just that not everyone wants it. Some people in open source think it is immoral to make a profit. I don’t.” Mr. Mickos was previously the head of MySQL, an open source database company that was purchased by Sun Microsystems (now part of Oracle) in 2008 for $1 billion.

Eucalyptus originated with a project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, but is clearly intended to be a profit-making business. Its customers include Puma, Sony, and the federal Department of Agriculture, and it… Continue reading: Open-Source A.W.S.: Creating a Thousand Clouds – NYTimes.com

Windows on an iPad – Technology Review

Check the source for an overview of Steve Perlman’s latest adventure

By downloading a free application to an iPad, users get two gigabytes of storage and access to popular Office software

Windows on an iPad – Technology Review

Continue reading: Windows on an iPad – Technology Review

What Went Wrong With Oracle’s Quarter? – Arik Hesseldahl – News – AllThingsD

Oracle had a bad quarter, but it can now point to at least one large Exadata cloud

Ellison also hinted that Apple is a big Oracle customer. He mentioned a “a very large American smartphone manufacturer” that had bought more than 30 Oracle Exadata systems as it built out its cloud. Unless I’m missing something, there’s really only one company that fits that description, and that’s Apple. Its use of Oracle gear within the mix at its North Carolina data centers has been speculated about before, but never confirmed by Apple directly. (Big surprise, that.)

What Went Wrong With Oracle’s Quarter? – Arik Hesseldahl – News – AllThingsD

Continue reading: What Went Wrong With Oracle’s Quarter? – Arik Hesseldahl – News – AllThingsD

Salesforce, a Leader in Cloud Computing, Draws Big Rivals – NYTimes.com

I suspect Google will be surprised to read that Google Apps is “close to” $1B in revenue; Gartner estimates it at considerably less than that

Mr. Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce, is characteristically pleased with himself. “It’s great that Oracle and SAP are buying cloud companies,” he said, asking, “Do you think it will transform them?”

For Mr. Benioff, who co-founded Salesforce in 1999, the acquisitions are a vindication of his strategy. “Amazon Web Services is making over $1 billion in revenues with cloud software,” he said. “Google Apps is close to that. We’re on track for revenues of $3 billion in 2012. That is $5 billion, and that is… Continue reading: Salesforce, a Leader in Cloud Computing, Draws Big Rivals – NYTimes.com

Google vs. Microsoft: Not All Clouds Are Created Equal | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

Excerpt from an Amit Singh profile; he’s the 20-year Oracle alum now leading Google’s enterprise operations

With its new cloud services, Oracle is offering its various software tools over the web, including its database. But it hasn’t adopted a Google-like multi-tenant architecture. Ellison says that in keeping customers isolated from each other, Oracle provides better security — whereas Singh sees this as an inability to really cut costs.

There’s no settling these arguments. There are certainly advantages to Google’s model — we’ve seen them firsthand — but no doubt, there will be businesses who refuse that model for years to come. But Singh’s point is well taken. At Google, “the cloud” means… Continue reading: Google vs. Microsoft: Not All Clouds Are Created Equal | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com