In last week's blog, I dove into the network issues I see surrounding the much-hyped "cloud computing" solutions. I thought I'd continue my harangue a bit this week with three more issues I see. But don't fear, next week the storm clouds will start to clear (or at least I'll have some ideas on how to weatherize your network). Read more

The decision between virtualization and cloud computing should be made on a case-by-case basis. Here are the pros and cons.

Cisco Systems won't try to compete with pay-as-you-go cloud computing providers such as Amazon, and instead will sell its infrastructure to those companies and provide its own software as a service.

By Eric Gens

In the past year, I’ve had hundreds of conversations with client and press about the emerging cloud services model, and its impact on the IT industry.  As you might imagine, more than a few folks question whether the cloud services model will really be as pervasive and transforming as its proponents argue.   The skeptics point, legitimately, to the many remaining challenges of cloud services adoption, particularly around security, availability, performance, limited customization, lack of standards, etc.

Two public cloud announcements from hosting providers this week, with some interesting similarities… Verizon Verizon has launched its Computing as a Service (CaaS) offering. This is a virtual data center (VDC) offering, which means that it’s got a Web-based GUI within which you provision and manage your infrastructure. You contract for CaaS itself on a one-year basis, paying for that base access on a monthly basis ...

Forrester's James Staten explains why a hybrid cloud computing strategy -- one that blends elements of public, internal and hosted cloud computing -- may be smartest. He also has four tips for IT leaders on building a secure hybrid cloud plan.

This week started with news that the U.S. government is ramping up plans to adopt cloud computing services. It ended with a post mortem on why Google's cloud went kaput for more than an hour on Thursday. Government IT managers should pay close attention to what went wrong at Google as they plot their cloud strategy.

EMC launches a new online storage service based on Atmos, its cloud storage platform. AT&T also announces it will sell online storage using Atmos.

The Amazon move follows an earlier offering by open source Web site management firm Hyperic.

AT&T will soon offer an on-demand storage service that will be accessible to enterprise customers through an Internet-based portal.