ReadWriteCloud

If you're working with Amazon Web Services (AWS), you should take note of the BitNami Cloud Tools site launched this week by BitNami. The Cloud Tools Installer packages a bundle of AWS support programs in one virtual machine for admins of AWS instances, and the soon-to-be launched Cloud Agent will let admins monitor servers and applications via AWS CloudWatch.

We haven't written much on Appistry, a St. Louis-based cloud data management and analytics applications vendor. So when it was in the news this week with raising a new round of venture funding, it seemed like a good time to cover it here.

Its product family is called CloudIQ and there are several different components. First is the CloudIQ Manager that configures the components and monitors their health. Next is CloudIQ Storage module, which allows Hadoop users to upgrade to their storage repository when you need more reliable operations and higher throughput. And finally there is CloudIQ Engine, which is used to build scalable analytical applications.

While most companies are scrambling to attach "cloud" to any product they can, Novell is turning out the lights on its Vibe Cloud service. Instead, the company plans to focus on its Vibe OnPrem hosted solution, and is giving customers until September 30 to land. While bad news for the small group using Vibe Cloud, it might be a good policy for making existing Novell customers happier.

Intuit today announced Brainstorm, a new Web-based collaboration and idea-sharing tool. It works by connecting employees through a simple program that inspires users to interact and collaborate with each other, enabling increased innovation opportunities and bringing a social mindset to businesses.

CumuLogic, a Java Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) software provider, today announces the public beta version of their new PaaS solution which will enable enterprises, cloud providers and ISVs to build and manage Java PaaS in public, private and hybrid cloud environments. The product is based on a cloud application management platform, and includes cloud services automation, autoscaling, monitoring, policy-base workload deployment resource management and user management. The idea is to mix and match different cloud-based applications, no matter where they reside.

Cloud was still probably the most talked about topic this week at OSCon. Cloud computing is still in the process of changing the way we work and do business, but let's face it: many vendors and consultants are overhyping the benefits, and a lot of us are just getting a bit tired of hearing the word "cloud." Cloud hype's not going away any time soon, but we can at least vent a little about some of the particular technologies we think are exaggerated. Which one irks you the most?

This week at the OSCON conference, a group of vendors has banded together to form the Open Cloud Initiative in the attempt to coalesce a collection of open source standards, requirements, products and services. Unlike earlier open cloud efforts, this one is community driven (although with more of a legal tone) rather than coming from vendors.

Software giant CA Technologies has introduced a series of new and enhanced cloud management products today, including:

• CA Business Service Insight v8.0,
  
• CA Automation Suite for Clouds v1.0,
  
• CA Automation Suite for Datacenters v12.5,
  
• CA Virtual Placement Manager v1.0,
  
• CA AppLogic v3.0, and
  
• CA NetQoS Unified Communications Monitor v3.2
  

A blue-ribbon US government panel co-chaired by Marc Benioff and Michael Capellas released their report today, a summary of which can be found here.

The Commission on the Leadership Opportunity in U.S. Deployment of the Cloud (CLOUD2), a collection of 71 industry executives, has been meeting over the past several months and has come out with its recommendations on ways to move towards cloud computing.

When selecting a cloud provider, you want to make sure that you're getting the best bang for your buck - but that's not easy. Unlike hardware offerings, which are relatively easy to compare, cloud providers are all over the map when it comes to pricing and features.

When you look at cloud providers like Amazon, RackSpace, GoGrid and others, you'll find pretty quickly that it's not as simple as buying physical servers. With Amazon you're paying per hour, plus bandwidth, plus fees for load balancing, managing IP addresses and more. Rackspace uses slightly different measurements, and GoGrid offers up yet another set of options that don't compare apples to apples against EC2 or Rackspace.