Seize the Cloud! Proven Near-Term Tactics From Successful Service Providers
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 by Alicia Gaba

 
Attend Nimsoft's upcoming webcast (2 attendees will win an Amazon Kindle!) and get proven guidance that can boost your business’ chances for success in the cloud. Learn from three successful cloud computing service provider leaders (including BlueLock) who have already established successful cloud-based businesses. Get practical guidance based on the experiences of our expert panelists.  Find out what worked and what didn’t, and discover some of the key challenges and opportunities that service providers face when moving into cloud computing.
 

While some service providers tend to look at cloud computing as a threat, the reality is that the cloud is opening up myriad opportunities for businesses. Each of the panelists has taken a fundamentally different approach to cloud offerings, based on their unique business objectives and opportunities. In this interactive webcast, you can ask questions and get specific guidance into the directions that make most sense for your business.

Our Service Provider Expert Panelists Are:

    * Dave Durkee, CEO, ENKI
    * John Qualls, President and CEO, BlueLock
    * Brian Ritchie, SVP and GM, Support and Managed Services Division, GlassHouse Technologies

Attend And Get Answers To These Questions:

    * Is cloud computing an opportunity or threat to your business?
    * Which kinds of service providers will be well-equipped to succeed in the cloud, which won’t, and why?
    * What are some of the best tips for service providers looking to embrace the cloud?
    * What traditional managed services can an MSP leverage in cloud environments?
    * What are some of the keys to making cloud services robust enough for clients’ high stakes business services?

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Nine Lives Media Inc. Names BlueLock to the Third-Annual MSPmentor 100
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 by Alicia Gaba
BlueLock has been named to Nine Lives Media Inc.’s third-annual MSPmentor 100, a
distinguished research report identifying the world’s most progressive managed service providers.

“We are honored to be recognized by MSPmentor as one of the world’s most progressive managed service providers," said John Qualls, President and CEO, BlueLock. “We believe our selection is recognition of our continued company growth over the past year and further validates our business plan and the market’s need for different classes of managed IT and cloud hosting services. Three years of cloud experience has allowed us to deliver true cloud computing services that enable developers to Fortune 500 enterprises to deploy and operate their applications on a highly available and scalable platform that is tailored to the
needs of their apps.”

The free MSPmentor 100 report, available at www.MSPmentor.net, is based on data from MSPmentor’s global online survey, conducted October through December 2009. The MSPmentor 100 report recognizes managed service providers based on a range of revenue and management metrics.

Founded three years ago, BlueLock was one of the country’s first providers of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), enabling companies to provision and manage their technology infrastructures more efficiently and cost-effectively. Delivering pre-configured, secure and resilient virtual IT environments which scale ondemand,

“Despite the challenging economy, MSPmentor 100 companies generated more than $700 million in combined recurring revenue and managed services revenue, up 31 percent from the companies’ combined results in 2008,” said Joe Panettieri, editorial director, MSPmentor. “Our report also reveals how MSPs are already profiting from SaaS and cloud services.”

MSPmentor, produced by Nine Lives Media Inc., is the ultimate guide to managed services. MSPmentor features the industry’s top-ranked blog, research, Webcasts, and FastChat videos. It is the number one online media destination for managed service providers in the world.
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BlueLock and Apparatus: A successful cloud hosting partnership
Monday, February 15, 2010 by Alicia Gaba
Over the past two years, BlueLock and Apparatus have built a strong and dynamic partnership with their complimentary virtualization and data center expertise.  By joining forces, the teams are able to work together to wrap services around BlueLock's cloud hosting solutions to better serve clients.

Due to our great success together, VMware asked BlueLock (a VMware Hosting Provider) and Apparatus, to take the stage during the keynote session at this year's VMware Partner Exchange to share our story in front of 2500 conference attendees. The VMware Partner Exchange is an annual partner conference dedicated to educating and enabling partners for success with VMware. 

Brian Wolff, VP of Sales at BlueLock and Casey Watson, Chief Evangelist at Apparatus went on stage and showed the virtualization community at the Las Vegas conference what Indiana's technology Community is all about - innovation, trust and execution.  That's right, Indianapolis is a virtualization hot-bed.


How the Partnership Works.
BlueLock has a win-win philosophy when it comes to our partners.  We like to do what we do best (cloud hosting) while our partners do what they do best.  In this case, Apparatus, an IT consulting, managed services and hosting provider is able to provide their client managed IT services surrounding the cloud and the applications being migrated to the cloud, while BlueLock provided the cloud hosting infrastructure and expertise.

At the VMware Partner Exchange, BlueLock was named Service Provider of the Year (2009) for the Americas and was a global finalist. Click here to see the list of award winners.

To learn more about BlueLock's partner program, click here.
 
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BlueLock's VMware Partner Exchange Recap
Monday, February 15, 2010 by Alicia Gaba
The week of the 2010 VMware Partner Exchange (PEX) was one of great accomplishment.  The conference started out on Monday Feb. 8, the day BlueLock launched BlueLock CloudSuite, a comprehensive offering of cloud hosting solutions.  The news took off and the PEX excitement began.

Kim and I drew large crowds at the BlueLock booth as we challenged visitors to test their "Cloud IQ."  Many walked away with enough points to earn a Starbucks gift card while other weren't so lucky and had some studying to do!

While we manned the booth, BlueLock's executives kept busy with many of our current partners such as Consonus, F5, DoubleTake Software, and of course, VMware representatives.  BlueLock's engineering and development squad, which was filled with a few new faces to the BlueLock team, found great value in the training breakouts and the time they spent with other virtualization experts from around the globe.

Tuesday morning, BlueLock's VP of Sales, Brian Wolff and Casey Watson of Apparatus took the stage at the PEX keynote address to spread their knowledge and expertise around creating meaningful and successful partnerships between cloud hosting providers (BlueLock) and managed service providers (Apparatus).  BlueLock and Apparatus have worked together in a number of cloud hosting projects with great success.  That success stemmed from each company doing what they do best while creating a partnership of understanding and strong communication.  Brian and Casey's participation in the PEX keynote helped to build heavy traffic at the BlueLock booth, which made Kim and I very happy!
 


 
Tuesday evening, BlueLock CEO John Qualls, CTO Pat O'Day, and Chairman Mark Hill attended an exclusive dinner to receive BlueLock's honors as Americas VMware Service Providers Program Partner of the Year and Global runner-up.  The following morning, the entire BlueLock team gathered at the regional breakout for the Americas where the award was announced in front of the entire congregation.


BlueLock was thrilled to receive such an honor.  We couldn't have done it without our expert team and our faithful clients who have made us who we are.  Congratulations to the entire BlueLock family and our friends, our clients, for a great year of accomplishment in 2009.  Here's to a great 2010!
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BlueLock Introduces Kim Graham Lee as New Chief Marketing Officer
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by Alicia Gaba
BlueLock recently announced the appointment of Kim Graham Lee as Chief Marketing Officer. With nearly 30 years of experience, Graham Lee is responsible for leading BlueLock’s branding initiatives, as well as driving the company's corporate and product marketing efforts. In addition, Graham Lee oversees all enterprise and partner marketing initiatives, from product planning and positioning, to the execution of customer acquisition and retention strategies.

“Kim brings a wealth of business experience, a customer-centric attitude, and an energetic presence that make her a strategic asset for BlueLock,” said John Qualls, CEO, BlueLock. “She has a proven track record of building successful marketing and sales organizations, as well as a deep understanding of high tech marketing. Her valuable combination of Fortune 500 client service experience as well as hands-on leadership of growth companies will certainly position BlueLock for continued growth and success in the cloud computing space.”

Prior to joining BlueLock, Graham Lee served as CEO of Vontoo, a privately-held technology and marketing startup in the direct voice marketing space. Under her leadership, the company had a successful capital raise in December 2008, doubled its revenue, and expanded its product suite. Graham Lee spent the first 19 years of her career at Walker Information, a global marketing research firm specializing in customer satisfaction measurement, where she served as senior vice president of global marketing and sales. Graham Lee also was president of OneBridge, a debit and credit card processing company. She held the executive marketing, communications and client service roles with two other technology organizations, LMiV, a convergent new media company and Eviciti, a Web integration firm.

“I am thrilled to join the BlueLock team and be part of a brand that is built on technology leadership, integrity and superior client service,” said Graham Lee. “The company has laid a fantastic foundation upon which to build our sales and marketing efforts and is poised to expand its leadership position in the rapidly evolving cloud computing space. I am excited about the opportunity to work with the team of professionals at BlueLock and contribute to the company’s growth.”

BlueLock recently announced that the company nearly tripled its workforce in 2009, and also has projections to virtually double its employee base and revenue in 2010 as cloud computing continues to gain traction. Graham Lee is one of the first hires of 2010 as the company looks to bring on more top engineering, developer and sales talent throughout the year.

Click here to read about Kim Graham Lee joining BlueLock, click here.

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BlueLock More than Doubles Headcount in 2009
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 by Alicia Gaba
BlueLock is poised to double workforce and revenue in 2010 as cloud computing continues to gain traction.

In 2009, BlueLock's workforce more than doubled and there are no plans to slow down.  Spurred by the growth of the cloud computing industry and combined with the continued need for IT expertise and infrastructure, BlueLock looks to capitalize on the growing shift toward cloud computing from on-premise IT with current and future product offerings, as well as bringing on top engineering, developer and sales talent in 2010.
 
"We are thrilled about BlueLock's growth over the past year and our recruitment of top talent, growing from eight employees in 2008 to 22 in 2009." said John Qualls, CEO, BlueLock. "We believe our 2009 growth is a testament to our innovative products and services and further validates our business plan and the market's demand for Infrastructure-as-a-Service. As cloud computing continues to grow, companies will continue to demand different classes of service for different tasks and BlueLock is perfectly positioned to make even bigger strides in 2010."

Topping Interactive Data Corp's (IDC) technology predictions for 2010, cloud computing is forecasted to see strong growth in the coming years. A recent IDC report found that the current worldwide revenue for IT cloud computing services stands at $17.4 billion, a number that will jump to $44.2 billion by 2013.

Interested in working for BlueLock? Contact us at jobs at bluelock.com

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Enterprise Mobile Cloud Computing: Is it the next big thing in the cloud?
Monday, January 18, 2010 by Alicia Gaba
By 2015, ABI Research predicts that more than 240 million business customers will be leveraging cloud computing services through mobile devices, reaching revenues of $5.2 billion.  According to ABI Research, an evolving IT supply chain, business adoption of cloud platforms for IT services, and greater business use of handsets and smartphones are creating new revenue streams for both IT and mobile suppliers serving businesses.

ABI Research practice director Dan Shey said, "The immediate opportunity lies in leveraging cloud platforms to develop mobile applications, particularly mobile applications that leverage enterprise data. Directly and indirectly, Microsoft and Google are major players both influencing and enabling these developments. Mobile operators have the most to gain through offers of cloud services to the enterprise leveraging their networks, application enablement, and data centers."

I can think of many applications we use at BlueLock that would be great to be able to access on a mobile device.  We've also begun to see a number of clients asking for mobile cloud options.  I can definitely see this trend taking hold in a big way.  What do you think?

If you have questions about BlueLock's enterprise cloud computing options, please contact us.

Link to the original article.


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Enterprise Computing in the Cloud
Sunday, January 17, 2010 by Alicia Gaba
So what is enterprise cloud computing?  How is it so different from (regular) cloud computing?

Jill Tummler Singer explains that enterprise cloud computing is "a behind-the-firewalls use of commercial, Internet-based cloud technologies specifically focused on one company’s or one business environment’s computing needs." 

It's a "a controlled, internal place that offers the rapid and flexible provisioning of compute power, storage, software, and security services to meet your mission’s demands.  It combines the processes of a best in class ITIL organization with the agility of managed, global infrastructure to make your IT faster, better, cheaper, and safer. Enterprise cloud computing gives your business agility, survivability, sustainability, and security."

Many enterprises with highly secure data and strict up-time and performance needs feel that cloud computing is out of the question.  Most of these companies questioning the abilities of cloud computing services are companies in the government, life sciences and financial services industries.  Enterprise cloud computing is the answer for them.  They need tailored, dedicated high performance environments to provide the benefits of cloud computing with the security and assurance of enterprise-class platforms.

BlueLock is a top VMware hosting provider - we use proven enterprise-class VMware virtualization technology to serve our clients no matter what industry or need level, but we are able to tailor and architect high performance, secure and compliant cloud computing environments specifically for our enterprise-level clients.  BlueLock has been extremely successful serving clients in the government, life sciences and financial services, helping them to realize the advantages of cloud computing.

To learn more about BlueLock's enterprise cloud computing services contact us here.

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Hybrid Hosting Solutions will be hot in 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 by Alicia Gaba
The hybrid cloud computing model has and will continue to gain traction as we move into 2010.   Recently, there has been a decent amount of buzz around the topic.  Hybrid cloud computing has been listed in many top prediction lists for 2010, including this one which claims to expect hybrid hosting to be the rule, not the exception.

Technology writer Michael Sheehan told Web 2.0 Journal that he believed 2010 would see the market for hybrid solutions, which combine aspects of private servers with public clouds, become more mature.  However, he also noted his uncertainty regarding which types of hybrid cloud solutions would make the biggest splash.

"Whether this be the combination of physical and cloud environments or, cloud bursting, or private and public clouds working congruently, there will definitely be a blurring of lines between what hosting is," he said.

Well, no matter which combination of cloud hosting solutions edges to the top, my prediction is that there won't be an all-out winner, but that each variety will solve problems for its own market.  Thankfully, BlueLock will be able to serve each variety: those who want to combine physical and virtual, private clouds and public clouds, or a combination of all four. 

Contact us today if you'd like to learn more about our hybrid cloud hosting solutions.


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Downtime or not, Cloud will still be on top.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009 by Alicia Gaba
"The cloud" is still in its youth, maybe adolescence, so its easy to point fingers and scream when an outage occurs.  Just recently, Amazon Web Services had an outage in its Northern Virginia data center due to the failure of a power supply in an "availability zone" as well as a second failure of a component in the redundant system.  Outages happen, so it shouldn't have been as big of a shock as it was made out to be. 

However, when companies are beginning to outsource data center operations, they have high expectations, which is why zero failure is a good standard for providers to aim at in the clouds.  The fact is, all internal systems fail too, but there is no one to point the finger at.  When real people and real technology is involved, outages will occur.  I strongly feel that the cloud, outages or not, will have higher up-time and availability than most, if not all, internal systems.  High-profile clients, sensitive data and the fear of hundreds of clients yelling and screaming is enough motivation for any infrastructure as a service provider to architect a bullet-proof cloud. 

At BlueLock, we like happy clients, that's why we promise 99.99% up-time and push every day to make our cloud bigger, better and stronger.
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The three things every IT leader should know about cloud computing
Thursday, December 17, 2009 by Alicia Gaba
If by now, moving into 2010, you are an IT leader and are still confused with all of this cloud computing stuff, rest assured you are probably not alone.  This brings us to this new top five list to help acclimate everyone to to basics of what you should know about the cloud computing market.

Cloud Computing can in fact enhance performance. 

Cloud Computing is designed to increase utilization of computing resources in way that traditional data centers and traditional hosting cannot.  Corporate servers run at about 15% of their capacity, whereas by pooling those resources the servers can reach as much as 80% capacity.  Also, the cloud eliminates the licensing fees and upfront capital costs associated with IT hardware and software.  As with most outsourcing models, cloud computing is no different, it frees up resources, specifically those needed to support the infrastructure.  With lowered support costs, those resources can then be focused on more strategic IT iniatives that have a bigger impact on the bottom line.

The Private Cloud is the hot spot for cloud computing beginners.

Many organizations who want to realize the benefits of cloud computing but still want the comfort of having their infrastructure at their own facility will build a private cloud in their data center.  These in-house environments that manage workloads using cloud methods are managed within the company's own firewall.  They offer the benefits and agility of better resource utilization without the security concerns of having sensitive data residing outside the organization's perimeter.  Once you achieve a level of comfort with the cloud and can see how your applications perform, you will be better able to gain access to the advantages of hybrid and/or public cloud computing.  BlueLock offers the BlueLock Box, a private cloud that can be installed at your facility or ours.  Yes, that's right, your place or ours.  What a nice and easy way to head to the clouds.

Security is a two-way street in the Cloud.

Just because the cloud you choose is secure doesn't mean your applications are secure, and vice versa.  The issue of security in the cloud is a unique one in which both sides of the coin matter equally.  The organization embracing cloud computing needs to have the correct compliance infrastructure in place to mitigate risks associated with everything from securing corporate data to managing who has access to it, when it's accessed and if it's being transferred from the cloud to other environments.  The service provider must do the same. 

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Private Cloud Solution in Higher Education
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 by Alicia Gaba
BlueLock provided a cloud computing solution to Marian University as their aging hardware began putting a toll on IT efficiency within the organization.  Marian University needed the comfort of a virtual disaster recovery solution, greater uptime and better computing capabilities.  BlueLock's private cloud solution was able to meet those goals with virtualization storage, copmute stability and flexible growth capabilities without a large upfront investment.

With the BlueLock Box, essentially a private cloud solution, Marian replicates their systems from their LeftHand SAN to BlueLock's LeftHand SAN, allowing them to "talk" to each other in cases when Marian University needs more compute or storage space.  Watch this video to hear more about Marian's success with BlueLock.


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TechTarget vCloud Express Review
Thursday, December 10, 2009 by Alicia Gaba
Jason Langone did a recent review of the five official VMware vCloud Express providers. Langone is a tried and true user of Amazon EC2, and therefore was somewhat skeptical of vCloud Express (although he's a VMware expert and a fan of most all of their products).

When vCloud Express was announced at VMworld 2009 in September, it was was showcased as a portal that will allow for cloud-based virtual machines to be easily configured from a virtual hardware perspective.  What's the big deal? Well, there are millions of VMware users who can now extend their existing virtual infrastructures into a hosted and secured VMware cloud.  That's a big deal.

Langone tested all five vCloud Express cloud computing providers, including BlueLock.

His intent was to test ease of setting up an account, total time to have an instance running, basic input/output (I/O) metrics and overall user experience while using AWS Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) to measure against.

Find out how BlueLock vCloud Express Beta II fared here.

Read the original post about his review here.

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Top 5 Cloud Computing Predictions 2010
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 by Alicia Gaba
Because we needed another "top" list, I'd love to go through David Linthicum's latest list, "Top 5 Cloud Computing Predictions for 2010."

Prediction #1: The rise of cloud computing standards

The whole theme of standards and interoperability was a big topic in 2009, but those discussions were very conceptual, and not really actionable.  Some organizations waited on the wayside before adopting a cloud computing solution because standards and interoperability would prevent them from experiencing vendor lock-in. On that note, some have said that BlueLock was a bad name choice because it has a connotation that we would "lock" our clients in.  I like to think that BlueLock would make someone think of security, but I guess not.  However, our cloud uses VMware virtualization technology, so you can take your VMware stuff and take it wherever you like (as long as it stays VMware) if you decide you aren't a big fan of us.  No vendor-lockin here.  Back to topic - I can already tell from listening in on some strategic meetings here that interoperability will take on a large role this year for us.  I can only guess that we aren't the only cloud computing provider with that on our mind.

Prediction #2: First Major Cloud Computing Outages

This one is only a matter of time.  Stuff happens in the cloud.  The cloud still involves real people and of course, real technology.  Although outages will happen, your provider should make sure that there is a sufficient backup plan in order that will help alleviate those pains.  And of course, the second a "big" provider has a "big" mishap, all aim will go to the cloud.  However, Linthicum reminds us, "Despite the outages, cloud computing providers will maintain an uptime record that far exceeds that of most on-premise systems, but you won't hear about that in the technology press."

Prediction #3: Microsoft will be relevant in the cloud

Most businesses run Microsoft, so to say that Microsoft will not become a larger cloud player would be silly.  Now that they've finally got going on the cloud front, we'll see just how much of an impact they'll make, but we're sure to see them make some sort of splash.  However, "Google will continue to dominate small to medium-sized businesses, using its free ad-driven model for delivery of Google Docs and Gmail, with a few larger enterprise deals thrown in."

Prediction #4: Rapid Consolidation of Existing Providers

As cloud computing continues to grow, many of the successful providers will want to expand even more, which will involve buying up the smaller guys.  Hence, there will be less small providers and more big - consolidation.

Prediction #5: Rise of Cloud Computing Startups

As if 2009 didn't see enough, there will be more in 2010 as the technology leaves the stage of early adoption and reaches the masses.  As consolidation occurs (see prediction #4), market value will increase and more VC-backed startups will sprout up.  Think you've seen a lot of "as a services" this year?  It won't be the end of it.

Read David's original post here.

Do you have a prediction for the cloud in 2010?

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IT to go "strategic" in 2010
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 by Alicia Gaba
A recent survey of business leaders, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by Accenture, revealed what those IT and business leaders are discussing in their closed-door budget meetings.  The results hint at one thing when it comes to IT: strategy. 

These IT and business leaders are the same people who worked to slash their IT expenses in 2009.  They may now be looking at IT as a strategic tool to reduce other business expenses, increase revenues and provide other kinds of value to the business.  Will this strategy correlate to the top IT strategies for 2010?

Accenture’s research shows that strategic areas for IT spending in 2010 will include server virtualization and consolidation, business analytics and intelligence, and more customer self-service e-business automation projects.  These are all good steps towards building a lean mean fighting IT machine.

Many are faithful that 2010 will bring about a recovery.  Most companies are approaching 2010 with conservative optimism in light of that "faith."  With lean IT that does its job, many companies could be in a good position to ride that recovery fruitfully.

What is your company planning to do in 2010 to make IT work better and harder?

Is your company planning to bring virtualization and/or cloud computing into their IT mix?



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Infrastructure as a Service: BlueLock Looking Back
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 by Alicia Gaba
This infrastructure as a service video was produced almost three years ago now, but the fundamentals of who BlueLock wanted to be and what we provided then hasn't changed too dramatically.  It's still all about BlueLock's three C's of cloud computing: 
     
  • Capacity
  • Continuity
  • Compliance

Our vision three years ago was spot on.  Hear what our leaders had to said then about their vision of infrastructure as a service (what has now become more widely known as cloud computing hosting), because it's what we continue to do today.



Click here to view more of our cloud computing videos.
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Asia shows room for growth in cloud computing market
Monday, December 7, 2009 by Alicia Gaba
A recent study shows that the awareness of cloud computing in Asia is still relatively low at 46%.  That means over half of the survey respondents answered that they were not familiar with the concept of cloud computing.  This sound to me like half of Asia has never even heard of cloud computing!

So what does that mean for the market of cloud computing?  There is room for a lot of global growth.  While currently over two-thirds of the respondents say that cloud computing is "not relevant" to their businesses, I have a feeling that as the benefits of virtualization and cloud computing become more apparent, those thoughts will change, especially in a country where 95% of organizations are aware of or using Software as a Service.

“Cloud computing is the next phase in the delivery and consumption of IT-enabled services and a major evolutionary step in the maturing of the IT industry,” said Michael Barnes, vice president.. “It provides an opportunity for organisations in Asia Pacific to leapfrog competitors in other regions. We expect organisations across Asia Pacific to embrace Cloud Computing as a way to drive greater standardisation at the IT infrastructure level while simultaneously lowering the resources required to leverage technology solutions for business benefits,” Barnes added.

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BlueLock's Partner Intel Demonstrates Experimental Cloud Computing Processor
Friday, December 4, 2009 by Alicia Gaba
 Wednesday, Intel demonstrated an experimental processor that applies the principles of cloud computing.  Intel was involved with the launch of BlueLock vCloud Express back in September, so we're excited to hear about the continued advances in their cloud computing technologies.

The new processor, a 48-core processor has 10 to 20 times the processing engines contained within the most popular Intel chips and consumes the same amount of energy as two household light bulbs.

The developer community refers to the chip as a cloud computing chip because the design is similar to the organization of cloud datacenters with the linking of processing cores through a high-speed network.  

Intel Lab Head and Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner quotes, "With a chip like this, you could imagine a cloud datacenter of the future which will be an order of magnitude more energy efficient than what exists today, saving significant resources on space and power costs."

As a leading infrastructure-as-a-service provider, BlueLock gets excited to hear about these new advances in cloud computing technology.  As the market continues to grow and mature, it will be technology like this that will push "the cloud" to greater heights.  Keep up the great work Intel!

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Indiana University Jumping in the Clouds: Lands $1.5M Grant
Thursday, December 3, 2009 by Alicia Gaba
This news warms my heart.  As an Indiana University Bloomington grad and now working for a leading Infrastructure as a Service provider (cloud provider) I'm ecstatic to hear that my alma mater is heading to the clouds in a big way.  Let's not be foolish to think that IU has been out of the cloud party completely, the IU School of Informatics is on top of their game.  But now, with the news of a grant specifically dedicated to cloud computing, IU should be making some big leaps in the arena. 

Indiana University has received a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a software infrastructure and use cloud computing for a variety of life sciences and genomics data applications, IU said today.

"This research is potentially path-breaking," Peter Cherbas, a professor of biology and director of the IU Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics, said in a statement.

"Cloud computing approaches are likely to change the nature of our national research computing infrastructure in the coming years," said Principal Investigator Geoffrey Fox, director of the Digital Science Center and associate dean of research and graduate studies in the IU School of Informatics and Computing. "These technologies hold significant promise in the life sciences and medical sciences as they offer the potential for greater computational power and faster speeds at a lower cost, and in a way that is easier for scientists to use than traditional grid computing approaches."

"Contemporary DNA sequencing machines are churning out data at rates that would have been unimaginable to biologists just a few years ago,” he added. “To use these data — to turn data into some kind of understanding — will demand good tools for using the Cloud and those tools will impact genomics projects worldwide.”

Ahhh...the joys and economics of cloud computing.  This is what its all about - churning lots of data at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time.  Click here to learn more about how we do just this for our clients.

Click here to read the news release about IU's Cloud Computing grant.

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Gartner's Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2010: Cloud Computing on Top
Thursday, December 3, 2009 by Alicia Gaba
Its no surprise to hear cloud computing tops another top ten list, but this is a good one. 

The news alert reports that "Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt." 

This year “cloud computing” bumped “virtualization” for the number one spot on Gartner’s top 10 strategic technologies list.  It should be noted that Gartner’s report is referring to virtualized computing environments (i.e. VMware, etc.) within the organization, as opposed to the virtualization that is inherent to cloud-based services delivered via the public Internet. 

Another recent report on private clouds acknowledged that companies will more than likely spend more money on internal (or private clouds) cloud computing environments than with public cloud providers.  BlueLock fits in well with this mix because with our private cloud offering we are able to deploy a private/internal cloud within your organization, but the technology allows for the private cloud to connect to the BlueLock public cloud environment for spillover or other needs.

Here is the full list of the top strategies from 2009 and for 2010:

Gartner’s top 10 strategic technologies for 2009 were:
 
1.  Virtualization
2.  Cloud computing
3.  Servers (beyond blades)
4.  Web oriented architectures
5.  Enterprise mashups
6.  Specialized systems
7.  Social software / networking
8.  Unified communications
9.  Business intelligence
10. Green IT
 
The research firm’s top 10 strategic technologies for 2010 include:
 
1. Cloud computing
2. Advanced analytics
3. Client computing
4. IT for green
5. Reshaping the data center
6. Social computing
7. Security
8. Flash memory
9. Virtualization
10. Mobile applications

To find out more about BlueLock's public cloud and private cloud solutions contact us here.

To read the original release, click here.

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