ReadWriteCloud

We do our best to tell you everything you need to know about cloud computing, but it's hard to fit everything in every week. Here are three articles that are worth your attention: an unusual list of thinkers who shaped the cloud, a guide to cloud computing acronyms and a potential new trend in SaaS.

A domain profiler document on GitHub is providing some interesting insights into the services that Y Combinator startups use to host its services.

The breakdown is according to Web host, Email host, DNS Host, Registrar, SSL Issuer and Certificate type.

Chittenden Bank started developing its plan to double the size of its presence in Vermont and came across the challenge of how the enterprise would be affected by the expansion.

It realized that the existing physical infrastructure would not suffice. And doubling the size of the IT staff was not an option.

Instead, it turned to virtualization. Here are the results.

The terms "data visualization" and "infographics," are often used interchangeably. It's understandable as the meanings often overlap. Data is often associated with information. The words visualization and graphics have a relationship that are both different and the same.

A discussion on Quora is providing some context about the terms and how they interrelate. That's a discussion just starting, based mostly upon the rising popularity of the practices. The conversation on the Quora thread could use some more perspectives. But we expect that topics such as these will see more attention this year, especially as more of these visuals are created. This medium's popularity will certainly grow considering its pop art nature and storytelling capability, and the cloud will continue to be an important part of its surge.

Here's a twist. Yahoo is launching a native Flickr app for Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 later this month that leverages Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.

The app connects Flickr data with Windows Azure via an API. Using Windows Azure, Yahoo is able to optimize the images for the Windows 7 environments and on the Windows Phone 7 devices.

For example, let's say someone is using the Flickr app on a Windows 7 tablet device and decides to view one of their albums. The app makes a call to Windows Azure, which computes the context for the way the image should be viewed on the device.

Much has been written about the benefits of cloud computing. Cost savings are one of the biggest benefits cited, but how can you make sure you're actually maximizing your savings? Diversity analyst Ben Kepes has written a white paper for Rackspace called Moving your Infrastructure to the Cloud: How to Maximize Benefits and Avoid Pitfalls. This paper is a good introduction to the subject of cloud computing and would be of benefit to anyone making a decision about migrating to the cloud.

Refreshingly, the white paper is available in HTML instead of as a PDF and requires no email address or registration to view.

This week we profiled five cloud startups to watch in 2011. Each startup is one that we think has great potential and hasn't received much, or any, coverage from ReadWriteWeb in the past. The five were: ClearDB, Netuitive, Loggly, RethinkDB and Tropo. Which of these five do you think will be most successful in the new year?

Cloud computing blogger Chirag Mehta and Constellation Research Group principal analyst R "Ray" Wang published today a list of their cloud computing predictions for 2011. The pair sees public cloud adoption stalling temporarily, the spread of the app store model in the enterprise, the convergence of Development-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service and an overall simplification of the technology landscape as some of the most important trends in cloud computing in 2011.

As 2010 draws to a close we're taking a look at a few cloud startups that show promise and that we haven't covered on ReadWriteCloud.

ClearDB is a cloud-hosted MySQL database service competing with Salesforce.com's Database.com. It's a fully ACID compliant relational database and is accessible from any platform and any programming language. It delivers query results over a REST API.

Today sees another acquisition with Teradata's plan to purchase Aprimo, the marketing automation software as a service (SaaS). Teradata acquired Aprimo as a way to add more analytics and provide better business intelligence services.

Yesterday, Salesforce.com announced its acquisition of Etacts, the CRM startup for managing email contacts. That's the second acquisition this month for Salesforce.com, which announced its planned purchase of Heroku for $212 million at its Dreamforce event two weeks ago.