Dell’s attempt to establish itself as a go-to supplier of cloud storage infrastructure is hanging in the balance this morning as the market waits to see if it will continue to bid against HP for control of 3PAR. Dell must decide today if it will counter HP’s latest bid $30 per share offer for 3PAR, but financial analysts expect it to back down in the face of HP’s deeper financial resources. Continue Reading

Without question, cloud computing continues to be the hot topic of discussion in information technology circles. Vendors, customers and industry observers are all weighing in on the opportunities and challenges posed by the cloud.

Many IT professionals are, quite reasonably, asking question such as: “What does my job look like as the tech industry and my company move toward cloud computing?” Continue Reading

In what is almost certain to be the biggest IT security announcement of the year, Intel has announced plans to acquire McAfee in a $7.6 billion move designed to harden the security of the mobile Internet.

The deal is expected to lead to the widespread deployment of embedded security features in smartphones and other handheld Internet terminals. Intel says this will prevent the mobile Internet falling victim to the same levels of malware penetration that have afflicted the PC world. Continue Reading

The growing corporate interest in application security products and testing services has prompted HP to step in and acquire its former partner in the market, Fortify Software. HP has paid an undisclosed sum for Fortify which has been working with HP to integrate its static app’ testing systems with HP’s dynamic, web-based app’ vulnerability testing services since last June. Continue Reading

When Storage EXPO closed its doors for the final time last year, the storage vendor community was faced with finding a new forum in which to discuss and demonstrate its latest products and technologies. IP EXPO has proved to be the natural choice.

As the UK’s biggest and most comprehensive IT conference and exhibition, IP EXPO 2010 is really the ideal place for storage to be seen and discussed in the most relevant context. Not, as storage used to be treated, as a peripheral technology that played a supporting role alongside more “strategic” infrastructure technologies, but as a core component of the integrated technology stack that will be the foundation of tomorrow’s next generation business infrastructure. Continue Reading

Sean Kelley, global CIO of Deutsche Bank, has been elected chairman of the Enterprise Cloud Leadership Council (ECLC), a cross-industry body created by the TM Forum, an international association of cloud infrastructure and services providers whose membership includes AT&T, BT, Cisco, IBM and Microsoft.

The TM Forum has so far done little to raise its profile outside of its tight-knit community of major networked service and technology vendors, but its creation of the ECLC, and the appointment of such as senior figure from the user community to lead it, is evidence that it plans to take a leading role in creating a structured market for cloud services.

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Who would have thought that nephology would become so significant in IT?! Clouds are the discussion topic of the moment and represent the business model many vendors and user enterprises are aspiring to deliver. However, like its meteorological counterpart, cloud computing is often insubstantial on closer inspection and likely to rain on the virtualisation parade.

What the prudent network professional has to separate is the myth from the reality of cloud design, aggravated by aggressive marketing that sometimes tries to squeeze almost any old technology other than Betamax into what is turning out to have significant consequences, not least in network design.

For example, you cannot just adopt cloud computing; you have to prepare the ground. Many IT departments will have a long road to travel to migrate to an in-house IT service-based approach or to prune their infrastructures sufficiently to outsource to a cloud provider without difficulty. There will have to be a lot of sorting out internally, ensuring data and applications are stored where you want them, rather like clearing out the spare room before taking in a lodger whose rent should help with the bills. Continue Reading