This post was written by Mulah Johnson
Apple is expected to unveil a new suite of web-based applications that play off of iWork. They will primarily be extensions of their desktop counterparts not replacements. As Weintraub notes, the entire iWork suite that Apple currently offers, including iMovie, will be given core functionality additions online. The iWork Cloud, and mobile access through devices like the iPhone and iPod touch. Many people believe cloud services are the future of computing, but Apple’s official foray into the modern world of cloud based services, Mobile Me, didn’t paint the concept in a very positive light.
Citrix Systems is looking toward 2009 as the year that its vision for cloud computing and desktop virtualization will come into much sharper focus, with product suites that allow enterprises to build new types of virtual infrastructures. Citrix plans to offer new software suites that will give enterprises the tools to build their own internal cloud computing infrastructures as well as allow businesses to tap into external clouds that are built using Citrix technology. That vision dovetails with Citrix’s virtual desktop and server virtualization offerings built around its 2007 acquisition of XenSource.
Zoho has announced Zoho CloudSQL, a middleware service that uses the familiar SQL (Structured Query Language) to connect business data stored in Zoho with traditional, on-premises applications as well as other SaaS offerings. Zoho Reports, the company’s online reporting and business intelligence service previously known as Zoho DB & Reports, is the first to support Zoho CloudSQL. Zoho Reports also added an HTTP-based API that lets users interact with their data programmatically. Customers can use this new technology to seamlessly blend the data and applications they have on-site with the data and applications they have in the cloud.
While arguments in the IT circles continue on the readiness of cloud computing for enterprises, Amazon has added Red Hat’s JBoss to its EC2 cloud computing platform. Another established hosting service, ServePath, has jumped into the fray with a version of cloud computing called GoGrid. Although there are various examples where small companies have latched on to Amazon Web Services and GoGrid to scale up their operations on the temporary basis, the addition of Red Hat’s JBoss to the cloud computing platform shows that cloud computing is serious business.
DocuSign has announced the release of DocuSign Connect for Salesforce, unveiled last week at the Dreamforce ‘08 Conference sponsored by Salesforce.com. Specifically designed for Salesforce.com users, DocuSign Connect for Salesforce is a suite of on-demand services providing integration between DocuSign’s enterprise-class electronic signature and online contract execution product and the Salesforce platform. It’s being pitched as a tool for organizations “looking to shorten their sales cycles.” The newly-unveiled Lead Management Suite is comprised of PowerDialer, JabberDog and ResponsePop for Salesforce.com.
Storage firm EMC has joined the Daoli Trusted Infrastructure Project which conducts research into “trust and assurance” in cloud computing environments. The team’s research will focus on cloud computing, trusted computing and virtualization. The issue of trust in cloud computing environments is becoming important as enterprises put applications, data and customer information in computing environments outside their local control. The research will explore a variety of techniques that could be applied to secure the underlying physical location as well as broadly shared resources.
A financial services software company, Derivix(R), has announced the launch of its new real-time Portfolio Risk system. The product facilitates buy- and sell-side firms to visualize real-time options market dynamics and underlying risk exposures to manage and successfully navigate today’s highly volatile markets. The product will be available by early 2009. The company has leveraged cloud computing, which uses virtual servers and resources delivered via the Internet as a service. The novel solution is also a more cost-effect alternative.
Salesforce.com will be expanding its cloud computing services, allowing its customers to build external websites more easily. The new service, which will be known as Force.com Sites, will be launched by the company at its Dreamforce user conference in San Francisco. Kendall Collins, senior vice president, product marketing, Salesforce.com stated that while infrastructure services of the company were expanding, it hoped to prevent the complexity brought into cloud computing by companies like Microsoft.
3Tera has announced that its eye-catching application building platform has gone through a major upgrade. The company calls its new platform an “infrastructure delivery network.” At the highest level, that means that the company can deliver remote backup on its technology platform, which is called AppLogic. “What’s new in cloud computing is the ability to leverage it for general purpose computing, and not have to write for a specific platform,” says Bert Armijo, 3Tera senior vice president of sales, marketing, and product management. “As long as the application runs on Linux (and now Solaris too), we can move between data centers with a single command.”
A San Francisco company, Hyperic Inc., has launched CloudStatus.com to monitor the health of Amazon’s cloud for other users. The company built various applications to test the Web services constantly. For example, an application could test how many seconds it takes to put a document on one of Amazon’s servers. According to Schneider, no technology can ever be successful unless developers can trust it. A great quote from the piece-