Cloudup 5-20-2011
Knorr argues that the cloud could never be separated from open source. “The number of open source cloud projects rose from a handful in 2005 to 470 by the end of 2010,” and their influence extends beyond these numbers. Developers also turn to open source to handle cloud challenges, such as OpenStack and Deltacloud. Ultimately, the cloud “takes the open source tradition of collaboration to the next level,” as these two work hand in hand.
If you don’t have enough time to scroll through Salesforce’s entire summer 2011 release notes, Douglas gives us a strong outline of the new features. The release announces changes to Jigsaw, Chatter, Force.com, and security enhancements for all of salesforce.com.
According to IBM’s 2011 CIO Study, “60 percent of organizations are ready to embrace cloud computing over the next five years” in order to grow their businesses and gain a stronger competitive advantage. The cloud offers these businesses a simple way to access information in a cost efficient, readily available manner. These numbers extend outside of the US, as CIOs in Japan, South Korea, and China all view the cloud “as a top priority.” Business intelligence and analytics are among the top priorities for the majority of companies surveyed, and the cloud provides them with an easy and quick way of doing these tasks.
Every now and then when I tell people I work in cloud computing they look at me like I’m crazy. Most people have at least some idea of what “the cloud” is, but there are the few out there who are still in the dark. Sourya Biswas offers multiple examples of how the cloud benefits the end user, even when they might not even realize it. For example, email services (especially Gmail) are the most popular cloud service, and most often are free, allowing users to receive information quickly and inexpensively. Moreover, Google Docs eliminates the need to purchase software such as Microsoft Office for presentations, reports, or spreadsheets. The fun does not stop here, however, many end users use Dropbox, Box.net, Flickr, and Amazon’s Cloud Player to make their lives easier, their work more mobile, and saves money- all without them realizing they are in the cloud.
Salesforce’s growth is accelerating faster than they anticipated, producing “better-than-expected first quarter results,” which raised their outlook for the next three months and fiscal year. Salesforce is now on track for “a $2 billion revenue run rate” for fiscal 2012. Overall, subscriptions are up, customers are up, and shares are up- definitely looking to be a great year.
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