With the 4^th of July holiday over, it’s back to work where we can keep our heads in the clouds. Following are cloud news bites you may have missed over the relaxing holiday.

Cloud Computing Taxonomy
From Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to Software as a Service (SaaS), Forrester visually places cloud providers in its updated Cloud Computing Taxonomy.

The Cloud Could be a Substantial Part of the Way Britain’s National Health Service Will Operate

Britain’s National Health Service predicts that deploying a G-Cloud (Government Cloud) could offer a huge opportunity for very large savings. Imagine 82 million patient records floating in the cloud.

Science Clouds. Have you heard of them?
These informal clouds are making it easy for scientific projects to experiment with IaaS-style cloud computing. Access to a Science Cloud is provided voluntarily. Here are a few links to available science clouds:

Nimbus @ University of Chicago
Stratus @ University of Florida
Wispy @ Purdue University
Kupa @ Masaryk University

Uncovering the newest and most pertinent Cloud Computing news can be a challenge. Let ReliaCloud be that little bird in your ear. We’re monitoring blogs, forums and social media to bring you the best Cloud Computing news and resources each week.

Cloud Computing Mind Map
The Cloud Computing Mind Map from George Reese helps you get your brain around today’s Cloud players.

Serious About the Cloud? Read up on Cloud Thoughts from the Great Minds at Berkeley
Seeking Supernovae in the Clouds: A Performance Study, by Berkeley Lab team, wins best paper award at first Scientific Cloud Computing workshop.

Government Straddling the Line on Cloud Computing
U.S. Government agencies move data to the cloud – Lawmakers Debate the Security.

What Does Infrastructure, Demand, Scalability, Pricing & Accessibility all Have in Common?
Must read: Network World Key Concepts of Cloud Computing.

As buzz surrounding cloud computing reaches a fever pitch, it’s important to understand not just how cloud computing works, but how cloud computing can work for your company. If you’re considering a move from a dedicated server to a cloud server, consider the following:

A cloud server is a virtualized server that leverages shared computing and storage resources, while a dedicated server is a physical server that is only allocated to one customer. New cloud servers can be provisioned very quickly; in fact, once ReliaCloud customers are registered, they can whip up a server in as little as 60 seconds.

Customers pay for cloud servers based on hourly utilization, and there are no set-up fees. When purchasing dedicated servers, customers sign a long-term contract, pay set-up fees, and typically have to wait days for the server to be installed.

Finally, cloud servers include features such as firewall security, high availability, and load balancing, which are only available to dedicated server customers who buy specialized hardware.

That was the sound of small business owners across the country taking a flying leap onto the cloud after reading Byron Acohido’s recent USA Today article. The cloud has appealed to increasingly broader circles over the past year, and now Acohido makes a strong case for the cloud as a tool for small businesses.

“Most small-business owners don’t realize this yet, but a mother lode of technology that can free precious cash and manpower is available to them as in no other time in history,” Acohido writes. “Small firms typically buy basic clerical and accounting software in shrink-wrap boxes and run them on a company computer. The owner, or a harried employee, invariably gets pressed into service as resident tech expert. Today, they can tap into a swelling portfolio of business applications residing in far-off computer servers. These programs come down from the Internet cloud.”

The inherent flexibility of cloud computing is what makes it so applicable and appealing to businesses of all sizes. Find out how the cloud can flex to fit your business!

Accessibility is a fundamental component of cloud computing, and remote access enables you to take full advantage of your cloud server. You can remotely access cloud servers in multiple ways:

One option is to use a virtual console located in the cloud portal website. The virtual console is like having a keyboard, monitor, and mouse connected to the cloud server. You can use the virtual console to make configuration changes on the server regardless of the server network settings. You should be aware that this virtual console is not designed for high performance, and you may experience more lag using this option than you would when managing servers via traditional management protocols.

Another option for remotely accessing your cloud server is to use SSH (Linux/Unix) and remote desktop (Windows) protocols. Before initiating this type of remote access, you need to configure network settings on the servers and cloud network accordingly. SSH and remote desktop protocols offer better performance when managing cloud servers remotely.

To learn more about managing your cloud server, contact us or tap into the wealth of knowledge at ReliaCloud’s Knowledge Base.

If you think the cloud is big now, the IDC (International Data Corporation and Premier market intelligence provider) thinks you haven’t seen anything yet. The Wall Street Journal is among those reporting on a recent IDC study indicating that the cloud market is expected to experience dramatic growth over the next few years. What does this mean to you? Well, let’s take a look.

According to the Wall Street Journal coverage, the boom will be particularly strong among private cloud servers as more businesses embrace the era of automated and virtualized data centers as opposed to “In-house data centers that have become increasingly more expensive and complex to set up and maintain,” writes Journal staffer Benjamin Pimentel. In contrast, “Cloud computing enables companies to access computing power through a network.” This means companies can spend less time and money dealing with IT headaches and get back to their core business with less effort at every stage of the process.

The article quotes IDC analyst Katherine Broderick as saying that “now is a great time for many IT organizations to begin seriously considering this technology and employing public and private clouds in order to simplify sprawling IT environments.” Isn’t it worth a few moments of your time to see if Cloud Computing can save hours of it?

To learn more about how to get on the booming Cloud, contact ReliaCloud today.

The Open Group recently published a white paper on how the development of cloud computing is comparable with the emergence of the mainframe, the minicomputer, the microprocessor, and even the Internet.

The white paper pays particular attention to the potential return on investment awaiting cloud participants, concluding that cloud computing can provide many advantages over conventional approaches to IT provisioning – which can translate into significant improvements in ROI.

At a basic level, cloud computing prevents over- and under-provisioning of resources, allowing customers to receive the level of service appropriate for their business. The ability to increase performance while decreasing costs is one of the primary reasons businesses consider joining the cloud. But what makes cloud computing particularly exciting is that cloud computing’s potential effect on business is not just incremental improvement, but disruptive transformation through new operating models.

To learn more about the impact and ROI cloud computing can have for your business, contact ReliaCloud today.

Phrases like “cloud server” and “cloud computing” are tossed around so frequently these days, you could be forgiven for thinking that they might be little more than water cooler buzz words. However, cloud servers and cloud computing represent a major paradigm shift, and organizations all around you are benefiting from hopping on the cloud.

So what’s this all about?

A cloud server is essentially raw computing power delivered as a metered service. This computing power is encapsulated within a cloud server instance. Each cloud server instance runs on top of a hypervisor within a physical computing infrastructure. A cloud server has a specific amount of computing (CPU and memory) and storage resources that can support an operating system and run applications.

Customers build their own cloud servers by selecting a specific cloud server model and a software template. The software template is a bootable image that contains an operating system and a set of applications. Customers pay for their cloud servers on an hourly basis, and customers are responsible for the provisioning and maintenance of their Cloud servers.

Now that you’re in the know, find out how cloud computing can work for your business.

I ran across another interesting article the other day – this one by the BBC, stating that  cloud computing has come out from behind the clouds to shine in the mainstream business world. Tim Weber, Business Editor for the BBC news website, interviewed many people in both the business and information technology sectors. He cites five key reasons the cloud has attracted a growing fan base:

• Cheap: Your IT provider will host services for multiple companies; sharing complex infrastructure is cost-efficient and you pay only for what you actually use.
• Quick: The most basic cloud services work out of the box. For more complex software and database solutions, Cloud computing allows you to skip the hardware procurement and capital expenditure phase—it’s perfect for start-ups.
• Up-to-date: Most providers constantly update their software offering, adding new features as they become available.
• Scalable: If your business is growing fast or has seasonal spikes, you can go large quickly because cloud systems are built to cope with sharp increases in workload.
• Mobile: Cloud services are designed to be used from a distance, so if you have a mobile workforce, your staff will have access to most of your systems on the go.

Now that almost every company has a website, it’s sufficed to say that companies are looking for a competitive advantage on the web.  As a result, the need for an optimal hosting environment has become more important than ever.

The usage of cloud hosting is increasingly popular and the benefits easily outline why.  The scalability, cost-efficiency and velocity of cloud hosting continue to drive the popularity of this technology.  Cloud hosting and cloud computing yields overall faster loading pages, and sites with faster loading pages yield profitability.

Here are 3 of the reasons cloud hosting creates a more profitable website:

1. Positive User Experience - Cloud hosting enables faster loading pages by utilizing multiple load balanced servers.  When end users experience faster speed times, they’re more likely to click through pages or return to the site.  This also helps to reduce bounce rates.  Just last June, Google conducted an experiment testing the affect of speed levels on the end user.  Slowing down the search results page by only 100-400 milliseconds impacted the number of searches per user of -0.2% to -0.6%. What may appear as miniscule numbers actually amounts to 0.2% to 0.6% fewer searches for changes under half a second!  Even the slightest delay can negatively influence a user’s decision to continue accessing a site.

2. Reduce operating costs –Cloud hosting already can save you money with a pay-as-you-grow usage model, but the ability to increase page loading speeds can save you even more.  Last summer Shopzilla reported the results from a year-long performance study stating a 5 second speed-up resulted in a 25% increase in page views, 50% reduction in hardware, and 7-12% increase in revenue.  This stat not only demonstrates the obvious profitability from speedier pages, but also the operational cost savings from a reduction in hardware.

3.  Web Search Ranking – The latest announcement from Google stated site speed will factor in to the search ranking algorithm.  Google states, and Google software engineer, Matt Cutts, reiterates that page relevance will still carry more SEO weight with less than 1% of queries affected by site speed, at this point.  This is not to say that site speed can’t positively impact your site, however.  Cutts also states the importance of embracing this change and turning it into an opportunity – the opportunity to improve your site speed thus improving your site.

Most websites are still limited to a single server through dedicated or shared hosting.  For companies seeking a positive end user experience, lower costs, and potential higher search rankings, opt for hosting in the cloud with a company such as ReliaCloud.

Learn more about ReliaCloud cloud server costs.

Curious about your site’s speed?  Try a free test.