Exascale Supercomputer Research Gets Federal Funding Boost

Six universities nationwide were given federal grants to conduct high-performance computing simulations aimed at addressing some of the world’s most complex problems.  The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) presented the awards, which also named each of the schools a center of excellence focusing on the emerging field of predictive science.

(Read my complete article at GoParallel)

Sherlock Takes Problem-Solving Skills to the Cloud

A bold new cloud and analytics-based initiative called Sherlock that aims to solve some of today’s most complex challenges has arrived. The effort at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California in partnership with SD Technology and Chickasaw Nation Industries, will serve federal, state, and local governments as well as universities nationwide.

(Read my complete article at GoParallel)

Gesture Control Company Gets Helping Hand From Intel

Maker of the wearable gesture control device MYO Thalmic Labs announces that it has raised a $14.5 million Series A round by Intel Capital, along with Spark Capital.

Thamlic, whose MYO device enables users to control computers, smartphones and other digital devices with simple hand gestures, will use the new funding to help meet growing order demand, further develop the product, and develop future products and technologies.

(Read my complete article at GoParallel)

Cloud networking popularity on the rise

A growing number of organizations are using cloud networking tools in their business or plan to do so in the year ahead, according to new research.

Spiceworks recently surveyed 488 IT professionals on their use of or intentions around cloud networking. The survey results were released in "The Cloudification of the Network," which was sponsored by network solutions provider Pertino.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Digium acquires VocalCloud, launches Digium Cloud Services

Digium Inc. recently announced that it has acquired VocalCloud, a provider of cloud-based VoIP solutions, and with the acquisition has launched Digium Cloud Services.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Networking among top skills for 2014, survey reveals

While hiring forecasts for 2014 may look a lot like 2013, there is especially good news for networking professionals.

According to Computerworld's annual jobs forecast, networking professionals have jumped from the eighth spot to number three on the publication's survey of most in-demand IT jobs. Computerworld surveyed 221 IT executives on their hiring plans for 2014, and 31 percent said they intend to hire networking professionals in the year ahead.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Amazon, Google and Microsoft ar top in developer's survet

Approximately 20 percent of application developers say they are now working on cloud applications, says a recent study by Forrester Research.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Cloud heart is green, Irish computing expert says

Ireland is the cloud computing center of Europe, if not the whole world, according to a leading Irish cloud computing expert.

That is the reported view of Dr. Horatia Gonzales-Velez, head of the National College of Ireland (NCI)'s Cloud Competency Centre, as recently reported by Silicon Republic.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

A call to promote worthy IT career efforts

Two articles especially caught my attention last week, both dealing with the information technology workforce, and both shedding light on the need to make IT careers more attractive.

(Read my entire article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

IT jobs are moving, growing and becoming top secret

Three new jobs reports caught our eye this week which have very different messages about what is happening to IT jobs, where it is happening and where your next best job might be.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Organizations plan repeat business for cloud projects

It's so far, so good, for cloud project spending, according to a new study by 451 Research. At least that is the message from organizations that have a separate cloud computing budget.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

One Source Networks expands IP-based global network

One Source Networks (OSN) is expanding its IP-based communications across five new points of presence (PoP) in North and South America, Asia and Europe, the company has announced.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Gravitant release will simplify VWware-based cloud management

Organizations just can't get enough of cloud-computing, according to the latest research from International Data Corp. (IDC). The Framingham, Mass.-based research firm says worldwide spending on IT cloud services will reach $47.4 billion this year and is on track to exceed $107 billion by 2017.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Global cloud spending will reach $47B in 2013

Organizations just can't get enough of cloud-computing, according to the latest research from International Data Corp. (IDC). The Framingham, Mass.-based research firm says worldwide spending on IT cloud services will reach $47.4 billion this year and is on track to exceed $107 billion by 2017.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Gulf States emerge as cloud hotbed

One of the fastest-growing regions to embrace cloud-based computing is the Persian Gulf area, where oil-rich countries are seeing a boom in new corporations as well as the use of Big Data and cloud computing to gain business intelligence and operational savings.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Cloud activity set to explode, expert predicts

Research firm International Data Corp (IDC) recently heralded the beginning of a new phase for cloud services, dubbed Chapter Two, in which the scale of cloud adoption will grow significantly but will have a more user- and solution-driven approach. The anticipation is that IT departments will become more innovative and will have more competitive cloud application offerings in the future.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Non-profits given free licenses for Office 365

Non-profit organizations in 41 countries have been given free, or substantially reduced-price, use of Microsoft's cloud-based Office 365 suite.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

SDN can save operators $4B in capex by 2017, report says

Software-defined networks can save mobile operators an estimated $4 billion in capital expenses by 2017, suggests new research by Strategy Analytics.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

ADTRAN announces 2 new IP product releases

ADTRAN, Inc., a leading provider of cloud connectivity, enterprise communications and mobility products, has recently made two major announcements in the IP space.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Cloud safety starts with the user, security expert says

Several recent studies have shown that the largest obstacle to the adoption of cloud-based computing is the fear of data security.

Those fears are often justified, says Bill Hackenberger, CEO of High Cloud Security. But equally disturbing is the large number of organizations that believe their data is safe and hacker-proof just because someone is watching over it.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Aorta Cloud hopes to avert Nirvanix closing

In the wake of cloud service provider Nirvanix announcing it is shutting down this month, its partner in the U.K. is seeking financial assistance to keep the service going for two months, CloudPro has reported.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Government systems unprepared ffor 'Big 5' challenges

Many government computer systems lack the capacity needed to meet the growing demands of cloud computing, Big Data and other leading technologies, according to a recent survey of 200 government network managers.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

More large organizations optin gfor PaaS adoption

The popularity of cloud Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is increasing, with nearly one-third of large organizations saying they are adopting PaaS.

That is the word from Unisphere Research, in a survey on PaaS cloud computing practices. Unisphere surveyed 262 enterprises on what their current or planned activities are around cloud adoption and what activities they are looking to do in the cloud. The research was sponsored by Oracle.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Extreme Networks acquiring Enterasys for $180M

Extreme Networks has announced that it is purchasing Enterasys Networks for $180 million in cash. The deal, which was announced Sept. 12, is expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter of 2013.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Amazon Web Services top search rankings in Dice.com report

Last month the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 3,600 new jobs were created in data processing, hosting and related services. And Howard Lee thinks he knows why: the cloud.

Lee is chief architect of Open Web, a sourcing product for recruiters offered by Dice.com. That company is well known for its job postings, salary data and job market tracking. In an interview with FierceEnterpriseCommunications this week, Lee shared his thoughts on the BLS numbers and on Dice.com's latest skills report.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Organizations fear hidden costs in the cloud

Cloud computing will be the highest priority for IT investments for the next few years, but the move to the cloud brings a number of risks to organizations that don't do it right, a new study by Research in Action finds.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Latest cloud security worry: going out of business

Just when organizations were thinking it was safe to venture into the cloud, we get word that cloud services provider Nirvanix is shutting down at the end of this month.

Customers have reportedly been given until Sept. 30 to move their data off Nirvanix servers. "Move it or lose it," as the saying goes.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Cloud providers pounce on crippled Nirvanix customers

The Google search results say it all:
… Nirvanix is Closing--Call the Pros at Savvis Today
… Nirvanix Out of Business? Try Egnyte Enterprise Cloud Storage
… CloudBerry Explorer Allows Moving Data Off of Nirvanix
… Nirvanix cloud collapse seen as a canary in the coal mine for IaaS
… After Nirvanix: How to assess the right cloud provider for you

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Cloud-enabling technologies market will reach $23B by 2016

The cloud-enabling technologies market is on track to reach $22.6 billion by 2016, according to new research by Market Monitor.

Market Monitor, a service of 451 Research, recently published its Cloud-Enabling Technologies overview report, which predicts a 21 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for these technologies through the 2016 timeframe.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Obamacare spurs hiring of call center staffers

In one week's time an estimated 27 million Americans will newly qualify to sign up for health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act.

Oct. 1 is the deadline upon which currently uninsured American workers can designate a health plan under their current employer, or sign up with one of the health insurance exchanges that have been established in each state. The Affordable Care Act will actually go into effect on Jan. 1, 2014, but the uninsured are being given 90 days in which to select the plan that will serve them come that date.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

PayScale report reveals salaries for top IT degrees

Despite some well-publicized layoffs in the past two weeks and predictions that hiring for information technology workers is cooling a bit this quarter, the IT field remains a well-paying one, new research reveals.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Blue Jeans Network gets $50M funding boost

Blue Jeans Network, a leading player in the interoperable video collaboration services space, has just received $50 million in new venture capital funding. The funds will be used to help the company expand its cloud-based videoconferencing network both domestically and globally.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Executives sold on the value of the cloud

Corporate executives see cloud computing as not only a means of saving money but also as an enabler for new ways of doing business, according to a recent study by research firm Saugatuck Technology.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

New IT hiring numbers project slight cooling

In the wake of a disappointing federal labor report for August, staffing firm Robert Half International has also reported an anticipated slight cooling for IT hiring for the fourth quarter of 2013.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Cloud computing reaches maturity stage for many organizations

Use of the cloud is reaching maturity stages for many organizations, with production applications now accounting for 60 percent of cloud usage.

That is among the findings of the new report "State of the Enterprise Cloud Report" from Verizon, which examined the use of cloud-based computing among customers between January 2012 and June 2013.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Ericsson building new R&D centers in Sweden, Canada

Research into cloud-based computing will get a boost from three new global Information and Communication Technology centers being built by Ericsson, the Swedish networking giant.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

The H1-B visa debate: Where do you stand?

I have been reading a lot lately about the perennial debate over H1-B visas and whether the annual cap should be lifted to allow more foreign workers to come here on this visa program.

By design, the H1-B visa is supposed to be used only to hire foreign workers for which U.S. hiring efforts are inadequate. In other words, we can't find enough bodies with the sought-after skills at home, so we must seek them abroad. Not surprisingly, the majority of H1-B visas issued each year are issued to information technology workers.

(Read my complete column at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Cedexis announces upgrade to Radar service

Cedexis, a leading provider of cloud and mobile app performance benchmarking tools, has announced upgrades to its Radar service. The upgrades include new interactivity, automated alerting and increased data granularity.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Case Study: Agricultural co-op finds project management solution in the cloud

Managers and employees at the Southern States Cooperative love sunny days, but their customers depend on rain as much as anything to succeed. So when the cooperative needed a new collaboration tool to effectively manage its 1,200 retail locations in 23 Southern and Mid-Atlantic states, a cloud-based product made perfect sense.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

New studies confirm cooling on IT job front

Two new research reports are confirming a cooling in the IT hiring market as we head into the fourth quarter.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Organizations fear hidden costs in the cloud

Cloud computing will be the highest priority for IT investments for the next few years, but the move to the cloud brings a number of risks to organizations that don't do it right, a new study by Research in Action finds.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Encore Performance: Katria N. Kowal, CTP, balances treasury and family

To say that Katria Kowal has the creative spirit doesn’t come close to capturing her true personality. Dance and music literally flow through her veins. In fact, asked what she most likes to do in her spare time, she responds. "Dance and sing with our children in the kitchen, and living room, and throughout the house. Really!"

An avid dancer, Kowal said "we always have music playing, and our young children already have an appreciation for various forms and genres, and can tell you the composer of the Pink Panther theme!" Kowal’s seven-year-old daughter has picked up on her love of dancing—both Ukrainian and ballet—especially in the Nutcracker, and playing the violin. "Our son can’t wait to play the drums or violin. But at four, he has time to decide" she laughed.

(Read my complete article at Exchange Magazine) 

Navigating the Parallel, HPC Age: Call for Papers

Advances in multicore and many-core architectures have ushered in a new era of high performance parallel and distributed simulation, but along with those new capabilities comes new challenges. To help address those challenges, the organizers of the 22nd High Performance Computing Symposium (HPC 2014) have issued a call for papers.

(Read my complete blog at GoParallel)

Exascale Supercomputer Expected by 2018

An exscale supercomputer that’s 1,000 times faster than today’s petascale systems will become a reality within the decade, Intel fellow Shekhar Borkar said during this year’s Semicon West conference.

(Read my complete blog at GoParallel)

Attempting to Tame Turbulence with HPCs

Turbulence–the chaotic movement of air or water that most people have experienced while flying, in the wake of a boat or even pouring cream into coffee–has been described as one of the important unsolved problems of classical physics. Better knowledge of turbulence can help in a wide range of fields from aerodynamics to climatology. That’s where high performance computers (HPCs) come in.

(Read my complete blog at GoParallel)

Successful supply chain negotiations require multifaceted approach

Supply chain managers are under increased pressure to reduce the cost of operational, medical and surgical supplies at their facilities, making successful negotiating a necessity.

"Hospitals are being challenged to leave no stone unturned," said Curtis Rooney, president of the Healthcare Supply Chain Association. "And the focus of all of these cuts is on the supply chain."

(Read my complete article at Healthcare Finance News)

Avoiding medical supply price mismatches

As medical supply prices have risen steadily in recent years, many hospitals have turned to group purchasing organizations to buy in bulk and keep costs down. But group product purchasing also complicates the product supply trail, often leading to errors that prevent fulfillment, delivery and payment.

(Read my complete article at Healthcare Finance News)