Today in Fedsphere

Temin likes Droid, but he needs a phone that works with a Mac.

Information Week gives us the to 20 government cloud service providers.

Mark Amtower informs us that Deltek bought Input.

ComputerWorld gives us a round up of IT compliance news.

All from Fedsphere, courtesy of Netspective.

Today in content management

Rutrell Yasin reporting for Government Computer News:

The Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information is looking to deploy cloud-based customer relationship and project management software over the next six weeks to its Regional Extension Centers.

The Labor Department is making similar moves.

How to migrate your blog to SharePoint.

Lora Bentley of IT Business Edge interviews Patrick Eitenbichler, director of marketing for information management solutions at HP.


Welcome to the Real Story Group; also on Twitter.

All from Presto Vivace's Google News: Content Management Systems.

Cloud computing along the Potomac

David Linthicum at Intelligent Enterprise points out that cloud computing shifts risk from your enterprise to the cloud computing provider. He also points out that, “Cloud computing at its essence is really about leveraging all sorts of computing resources, on-demand, stuff that you don't have to build or buy.”

Kristen Nicole at Social Times reports on playlist.io, a web based application that makes it easy to create playlists. It works with iTunes too.

March Hausman suggests that there are holes in the cloud. (Of course there is a way of dealing with that.)

Winter Casey at Tech Daily Dose reports that cloud computing is gaining ground within the government.

The Disco Blog has a podcast interview with Tim Bray about cloud computing and related topics.


Shawn Shell has the news about SharePoint and Microsoft's new cloud announcement

Jimmy at East Coast Blogging has been having second thoughts on cloud computing.

And from Government Computer News: Google App Engine offers super-charged Python, no SLA.

Cloud Computing; a secure approach

I trust that seeing is believing:

What is Google App Engine?

Developing Cloud-Based Applications

February 26th, 2009 | 8:30 - 11:00 a.m. | Google, Reston Town Center

---

Information Concepts invites you to join us for a Breakfast and discussion about Google App Engine, Google’s development platform.

We will discuss developing custom Cloud-based applications and the benefits of deploying applications in an instantly scalable environment without the need to pay up front for licenses or hardware.

Agenda:
- Breakfast / Networking
- Benefits of Cloud-Based Development
- What is Google App Engine (GAE)?
- Demo and Sample Code
- Q&A with GAE Product Manager

Event Details:
February 26, 2009
Google Reston Office
1818 Library Street, Suite 400
Reston, VA 20190

Registration Fee: No charge
Please Register by February 20th by 5:00 p.m.

A common misunderstanding about cloud computing

Matt Seidel, TechFlash

Amazon’s core business is to sell goods. Google‘s core business is search and advertising. Microsoft’s is traditional software. Are these really the companies we should be relying on to offer a highly reliable cloud infrastructure? Not to mention questions of security and data control, and the risks of storing valuable intellectual property outside your company’s firewalls.

Using could computing does not necessitate giving up control of your data. I keep trying to tell reporters this, but clearly I am not getting through.

Syscon launches new Cloud Computing Journal

SYS-CON Launches "Cloud Computing 2009" Website for Cloud Computing Journal

SYS-CON Media announced today that the Website showcasing one of its most distinguished titles, Cloud Computing Journal, founded in 2008, has been stunningly re-designed and re-launched. Under the technical-savvy leadership of Editor Alan Williamson, Cloud Computing Journal 2009 continues to publish in-depth perspectives, technical features, and industry columns all written by thought leaders in the worldwide Cloud Computing community.

In a media landscape filled with bad news this is very pleasant indeed.

Edit -
Alan Williamson is the Editor in Chief

Why Cloud Computing will be a growth sector in a down economy

If you are a systems integrator, you are searching for a way to save your customers money while maintaining profits. In the past your price to your customer included the cost of hardware, software, plus the price of your own custom development and installation. With Cloud Computing you can eliminate the cost of hardware, drastically reduce the cost of software to actual usage, and charge the same for your services. Thus the price you offer your customer is drastically lower while your company’s profits remain the same. There is no wonder why developers are stampeding into the Cloud Computing market.

Google makes it look easy

Google Goes to Washington, Gearing Up to Put Its Stamp on Government

"Sometimes they'll look at us and say, 'But what do you actually sell?' " said Mike Bradshaw, Google's head of federal sales, who has sold technology to the government for IBM and Microsoft.

Their answer is nothing. Well, nothing entirely new, anyway. Google wants agencies and the firms working with them to give "cloud-computing" a try. That means, for example, using Google Maps and Google Earth to visualize massive amounts of information, or using Google's search tool to organize internal data, and storing that information on Google's servers "in the cloud." The enterprise versions of the tools, which come with extra storage and security features, cost around $50 per user, per year.

Obviously Google does a great deal, they just make it look easy. They are one of the most successful companies offering cloud computing and clearly they are going to do very well with it.

Fog computing

eWeek: Cloud Computing

Meanwhile, Anderson discussed a project he is working on that he calls "fog computing," which attempts to tap the unused power of private PCs and devices owned by people around the world. The goal is to use the underused computing power as a resource pool to tap for scientific research, Anderson said. Already "about 1 million computers are volunteering" in the effort, he said.

We may have to give up all those jokes about vapor ware.

Cloud computing and chain of custody

Cloud Computing Reality Check

There are a range of IT governance issues, not the least of which is e-discovery. Some questions that came up: How do you run e-discovery against hosted e-mail? And what privacy protections are in place so that your company's legal experts can access what's needed, but not the cloud service provider? Another way of looking at this is the "chain of custody" of your corporate data in the cloud.

Definitions: Cloud Computing, Utility Computing, Grid Computing, SaaS

Cloud Computing:

Cloud computing is Internet ('Cloud') based development and use of computer technology ('Computing'). The cloud is a metaphor for the Internet (based on how it is depicted in computer network diagrams) and is an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it conceals[1]. It is a style of computing where IT-related capabilities are provided “as a service”[2], allowing users to access technology-enabled services from the Internet ("in the cloud")[3] without knowledge of, expertise with, or control over the technology infrastructure that supports them[4]. According to the IEEE Computer Society it "is a paradigm in which information is permanently stored in servers on the Internet and cached temporarily on clients that include desktops, entertainment centers, table computers, notebooks, wall computers, handhelds, etc

Utility Computing

Utility computing is a metered service where computing or storage resources are provided on a needed basis similar to the way public utilities (water, electricity, telephone, etc.) are provided to homes and paid for as they are used. The purest form of utility computing requires two service characteristics metered billing and dynamic resource allocation. Customers of utility computing are not billed for a specific computer or server but are billed just for the computing or storage facilities and cycles used. In the simplest terms, utility computing implies the capability to use more resources temporarily and on-demand during peak periods.

Grid Computing

Grid computing allows the virtualization of distributed computing and data resources such as processing, network bandwidth and storage capacity to provide a unique system image, granting users and applications access to vast IT capabilities.

Software as a service (SaaS)

A software application delivery model where a software vendor develops a web-native software application and hosts and operates the application for use by its customers over the Internet. Customers pay for using the software itself, not for owning the software.

Cloud Computing, open source, and business models

From a comment on the Slashdot discussion of Stanford Teaching MBAs How To Fight Open Source:

resistence is futile

unless your product is targeted at such a small subset of users that noone in the OSS world would bother to create a competing product there will always be some geek out there willing to dedicate all their spare time to create something that will compete with your product... for free. What proprietry vendors need to do is charging for software as a service and provide support packages that the OSS world don't bother to do.

In a world of Software as a Service and Cloud Computing, where the developer charges for the initial work and usage, the role of intellectual property in guaranteeing a return on investment will diminish.

Cloud Computing Expo 2009, call for Papers

SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Expo 2009 East in NYC: Call for Papers Now Open

SYS-CON Events, producer of Cloud Computing Expo 2009 East, to be held March 22-24, 2009, in New York City, announces that its Call for Papers is now open. Topics include all aspects of providing or using massively scalable IT-related capabilities as a service using Internet technologies...

Call for Papers Deadline - October 15, 2008

What is Cloud Computing

See also:
15 Ways to Tell Its Not Cloud Computing

Velocity, Cloud Camp, Structure - Cloud Conference Week, Part 1

You Think It’s Bad Now: Get Ready for Cloud-* - Defining Cloud Computing - Cloud Conference Week, Part 2

Your Cloud Consumer: ISV or Enterprise? - Cloud Conference Week, Part 3

Don’t confuse SaaS with Cloud Computing - Cloud Conference Week, Part 4

Cloud Standards and Open Source - Cloud Conference Week, Part 5

Links for cloud computing

I am going to write a proper post about cloud computing; but until then here are some good links:

The 10 Laws of Cloudonomics

Cloud Computing's Impact on Digital Marketing - Trends to Watch

Effective use of video

Explaining cloud computing.