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Problem solve

Get help with specific problems with your technologies, process and projects.

• Cloud integration tools and platforms

  Learn about the decisions IT managers must make when it comes to cloud integration tools, platforms and architectures. Continue Reading

• PaaS selection starts at the programming language

  The PaaS market is growing without a single leader or approach. Picking a model should involve more than just saying, ‘Eeney, meeney, miney, moe.’ Continue Reading

• The basics of cloud-based data storage

  Public cloud can offer near-limitless storage, though it’s not always the right choice. Storing the wrong type of data there has its consequences. Continue Reading

• Big data buzz gets louder with Apache Hadoop and Hive

  Apache Hive gives SQL-savvy developers the power to add up complex queries against big data in Windows Azure blobs. Continue Reading

• Primary factors for migrating VMs to the cloud

  Cloud may seem to change everything, but the issues aren't new. Looking closely at virtual-to-cloud migration, it's more like a throwback to P2V days. Continue Reading

• Pros and cons of a non-VM-based IaaS model

  Building an IaaS cloud without using VMs has some limits. The ability to progress to a mixed-service cloud can help IT teams ignore potential issues.Continue Reading

• Why big data, testing make good Amazon EC2 spot instance candidates

  Amazon EC2 spot instances are ideal for use with some cloud apps. Running tasks like big data analysis there can even reduce your bottom line.Continue Reading

• Rules for deploying virtual machine images in the cloud

  Choosing a method for deploying VMs in the cloud forces you to reckon with your priorities. Weigh advantages of assembly on demand vs. golden images.Continue Reading

• Examining the state of PaaS in the year of ‘big data’

  Either more vendors are offering ‘big data’ capabilities or they have creative marketing teams. Which PaaS provider’s big data cloud is the real deal?Continue Reading

• Using OpenStack as the building block for a do-it-yourself cloud

  While building a private cloud on open source software may not be for all companies, OpenStack has features that make it worth it to develop in-house.Continue Reading

• Planning and testing cloud-based disaster recovery

  Cloud-based disaster recovery can be less expensive and faster than traditional DR -- and it could protect your enterprise when all hell breaks loose.Continue Reading

• Open source cloud platforms: Moving from hype to production

  Success of several open source cloud providers hinges on whether OpenStack cloud is production-ready. How do Eucalyptus, Red Hat and others stack up?Continue Reading

• Selecting the right virtual machine for your private cloud

  So you’re ready to get into private cloud? Pace yourself. Choosing to cloud-enable the wrong VM could negatively affect performance.Continue Reading

• Keys to integrated cloud application management

  Seamless cloud application management isn’t a pipe dream. By following a few steps, cloud admins can monitor cloud app performance from one interface.Continue Reading

• Hybrid cloud management tools and strategies

  Determining how to manage hybrid clouds can seem daunting. The trick is to identify what you need to manage and the best types of tools for the job.Continue Reading

• Six principles of HP Cloud Services

  Lining up cloud platforms from major vendors can cause vertigo. What’s the difference among private cloud products? Take a look at HP Cloud Services.Continue Reading

• Four cloud computing myths debunked

  Misinformation and misconceptions surround the cloud market, and falling for these four myths can ruin your cloud project.Continue Reading

• The rise of the non-Amazon IaaS cloud provider

  Amazon isn’t the only vendor in the IaaS universe. With other large vendors out there and niche providers cropping up, enterprises have choices.Continue Reading

• Microsoft cloud service lets citizen developers crunch big data

  Microsoft’s "Data Explorer" cloud service puts coding power into the hands citizen developers. It remains to be seen how deep into big data users get.Continue Reading

• Load balancing servers in a private cloud

  Overloaded servers can crush performance and ruin end users’ computing experiences. Load balancing is key to maintaining healthy, robust clouds.Continue Reading

• Self-service, security and storage tools for the private cloud

  To manage a private cloud, you’ll need third-party tools that can help create self-service portals, maintain security and control storage.Continue Reading

• Performing due diligence before signing a cloud SLA

  Cloud computing isn’t without risks. But companies can cover their assets by performing some due diligence before signing a service-level agreement.Continue Reading

• Checklist: Managing applications in the cloud

  Moving applications to the cloud goes beyond selecting the right apps. Next steps include configuring apps, migrating data and monitoring.Continue Reading

• Hybrid cloud: The best of public and private clouds

  Hybrid clouds are gaining acceptance in the enterprise. With three ways to build a hybrid cloud, you need to know which integration method is best.Continue Reading

• Cloud security concerns persist over multi-tenancy environments

  Since Oracle announced its cloud plans, multi-tenancy has again become a concern. Should users be worried? Cloud expert Jeff Kaplan pulls the truth about cloud security out of the fog.Continue Reading

• Monitoring cloud workload activities

  Do you know what your cloud is doing? Monitoring cloud workloads can help spot performance problems that might be lurking behind the scenes.Continue Reading

• Building a Citrix private cloud in six steps

  Are you ready to build a private cloud? Use Citrix’s cloud offerings and follow these six steps to get your cloud up and running.Continue Reading

• Google, IBM, Oracle want piece of big data in the cloud

  Public cloud giants hop onto big data in the cloud with Hadoop/MapReduce integrations.Continue Reading

• Enterprise cloud licensing basics

  Managing software licenses is challenging, and cloud only increases that complexity. Start early; keep licensing models in mind when building clouds.Continue Reading

• Cloud computing breathes life into test and development

  Test and dev departments often draw the short straw when it comes to hardware and resources. In some cases, performing test and dev in the cloud makes more sense than keeping it internal.Continue Reading

• Enterprises usher in mobile cloud computing

  As mobile cloud computing infiltrates the enterprise, IT managers and developers still grapple with security and policy issues.Continue Reading

• Mapping applications to the hybrid cloud

  Moving the right application to a hybrid cloud can help enterprises eke out the most value from the public cloud.Continue Reading

• Connecting cloud data sources with the OData API

  The Open Data Protocol could be the key to linking on-premises enterprise data and cloud sources.Continue Reading

• The importance of identity federation in the cloud

  IT shops need to focus on uptime and stability in the cloud to keep a competitive advantage. Identity federation can help maintain technological efficiency and business competency.Continue Reading

• Three questions to ask when considering Microsoft Azure

  Is Microsoft Azure a no-brainer cloud choice or impossible to adopt? Ask these three questions to determine if the cloud platform is right for you.Continue Reading

• Users cite problems with Dell Boomi SaaS integration suite

  Dell this week released an update to its newly acquired Boomi SaaS integration suite, but at least two companies say you won't catch them using the product anymore.Continue Reading

• Finalizing VMware vCloud Director configuration

  In the final part of our three-part series on configuring vCloud Director, our expert explains how to prep VMware's cloud management service.Continue Reading

• Securing virtual machines in the cloud

  Finding protection for a virtual infrastructure may seem unnecessary, but it's increasingly important to ensure the security of virtual machines in cloud-based environments.Continue Reading

• Defining and allocating vCloud Director resources

  For IT shops configuring VMware vCloud Director, here are the first four steps needed to make the service aware of a vSphere environment.Continue Reading

• VMware vCloud Director configuration: How to begin

  Configuring VMware's new vCloud Director can seem a little intimidating, but our expert shows you how to start the process in the first of this three-part series.Continue Reading

• Choosing from the major Platform as a Service providers

  Many organizations prefer Platform as a Service offerings for their cloud needs. Our expert compares options from Google, Microsoft and Amazon.Continue Reading

• Ten questions to ask when storing data in the cloud

  Concerned about the security and privacy of your data in the cloud? Ask these 10 questions of every cloud provider to ensure that they'll keep your data safe and flexible.Continue Reading

• How much are free cloud computing services worth?

  Free trials from cloud computing providers like Microsoft and Google are one way to lead new users toward cloud adoption. Our expert breaks down the value of each offering.Continue Reading

• Connecting to virtual servers in the cloud

  For IT shops that must move content from an enterprise network or desktop to a cloud-based server, here's how to set up remote connections to virtual servers.Continue Reading

• Defining the Microsoft Hyper-V Cloud

  Microsoft's entry into the private cloud world, Hyper-V Cloud, aims to link virtualization and business processes. Our expert explains how it'll fit in your virtual environment.Continue Reading

• OpSource Cloud: Under the hood

  OpSource's VMware-based cloud offers an intuitive cloud computing environment, but how does it stack up to Amazon Web Services?Continue Reading

• Using CMDBs and service catalogs to build private clouds

  Companies leading the charge on building private clouds are making use of service catalogs and configuration management databases to support the rapid change enabled by cloud-based IT services.Continue Reading

• Five open source tools for building and managing clouds

  Cloud computing is poised to reap the benefits of open source tools. Our expert describes five tools, including KVM, Eucalyptus and Deltacloud, to keep an eye on.Continue Reading

• The building blocks of private cloud

  Before building a private cloud, make sure that you understand its virtualization underpinnings and the essential characteristics of cloud computing in general.Continue Reading

• From private cloud to hybrid cloud: Six things to consider

  IT organizations with private clouds should soon see the value in a hybrid cloud expansion. Find out six things you'll need to know before taking the hybrid cloud plunge.Continue Reading

• Intrusion detection in a cloud computing environment

  Make sure that your cloud computing environment is equipped to detect and respond to attacks with the appropriate intrusion detection systems.Continue Reading

• Want to build a private cloud?

  Where should IT pros start when it comes to building a private cloud? This tip digs into the requirements for private cloud, including IT automation, security and standards.Continue Reading

• Is PCI compliance attainable in a public cloud?

  Can you reach PCI-DSS compliance in a public cloud? The answer is yes, with some gotchas. Find out the requirements to stay compliant.Continue Reading

• Understanding cloud compliance issues

  Concerns about compliance have made companies wary of storing their data in public cloud environments.Continue Reading

• Securing data in the cloud

  Ensure data security in the cloud by classifying and storing it under the proper protection requirements.Continue Reading

• The most important threat facing an IaaS cloud service

  The number one threat to using an Infrastructure as a Service offering is the vulnerabilities of the underlying operating system and services.Continue Reading

• Top threats in a PaaS cloud service and how to avoid them

  Platform as a Service offerings suffer from vulnerabilities, such as lax default application configurations and holes in Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocols, which should be monitored and mitigated.Continue Reading

• VMware vCloud Express providers: Hosting.com, Logica and Melbourne IT

  Hosting.com, Logica, and Melbourne IT may not fit the bill as as vCloud Express providers, mainly because they seemed to have missed the "express" part of vCloud Express. And according to our contributor, a product being in Beta doesn't mean it ...Continue Reading

• Mitigating the top three Software as a Service security concerns

  While Software as a Service users rely on the service's provider for general security needs, issues such as insecure credentials can still threaten a system's privacy.Continue Reading

• Five requirements for deploying an application in a public cloud

  Thinking about deploying an application in a public cloud? Investigate these five requirements to ensure success.Continue Reading

• Running a Web service on Google App Engine

  Google's App Engine for building Web applications in the cloud is beginning to support Java servlet-based Web services. It's still under development, but you can experiment using Eclipse support or command-line utilities in the SDK.Continue Reading

• Network considerations in cloud computing

  The impact of networking on cloud computing is best understood by considering public and private cloud applications in one dimension and cloud access versus intra-cloud networking in the other.Continue Reading

• Identifying applications for public and private clouds

  Before leaping head first into cloud services, figure which applications are best suited to a public versus private cloud. This article will help you define target apps for the cloud.Continue Reading

• Meeting performance standards and SLAs in the cloud

  There are six critical elements of cloud behavior that should be considered to meet performance levels in a cloud computing environment.Continue Reading

• Amazon's EC2 and the open source cloud projects

  Discover the benefits of the open cloud computing solution, such as Amazon's EC2, and how open source cloud environments like Eucalyptus can provide support for EC2 web services and applications.Continue Reading

• Platform as a Service: Google and Force.com

  Discover how the Force.com cloud, Google's App Engine and other structured cloud computing solutions use cloud middleware and database tools to integrate applications into their platforms.Continue Reading

• How cloud computing will change capacity management

  Capacity management in IT departments has been informed by the limitations of traditional data centers. Cloud computing will change the ball-game, allowing IT managers to deal with the new rivers of data that would overflow the traditional data ...Continue Reading

• Code sample illustrates how to write Azure applications for the cloud

  In a series of blog entries on MSDN, Microsoft's Maor David-Pur has given developers a concrete, step-by-step Azure tutorial geared to experienced .NET developers.Continue Reading

• Cloud computing and application security: Issues and risks

  Contrary to popular belief, moving applications to the cloud won't make your application security responsibilities disappear. Learn more about the misconceptions around app security in the cloud.Continue Reading

• Implementation cost for a rollout of SaaS at 20 locations

  One reader asks how to calculate projected costs for a rollout of Software as a Service (SaaS) CRM at more than twenty locations. Read Denis Pombriant's advice here.Continue Reading