SAS 70 is the long-time audit standard that has been a “must” for service providers (data center operators, cloud providers, etc.) who have a need to test and validate their security controls. A SAS 70 compliancy rating has been the gold standard for data center users to gain assurance that their data center is secure [...]

When a cloud service provider says they run their service in a “Tier III data center,” what does that mean and, why should you care? The Tier level of a data center refers to the ability of the facility to support the systems it serves. Tier designations provide a basis for comparing the functionality, capacity, [...]

Every business needs Internet access and telecommunication services. This means every business needs to determine where get these services from, how to get the best deals, when to reasonably expect installation, and what factors matter in a good relationship with service providers.

With so many options now available in the cloud marketplace, finding a service provider that can actually deliver what a customer wants and needs is a complex process. What I do for my prospective and current customers is vet the cloud service providers that I represent to assure that they provide everything from a sound technical architecture to a good customer experience. I am looking for mature national players in the managed hosting space that are evolving with the overall marketplace.

A lot of terms have become part of the overall cloud vernacular. None are more accepted than SaaS, PaaS and IaaS. This post is my attempt to peel away the layers of the “cloud onion” in a way that everyone can understand. With the continual changes in the cloud, definitions of the types of services are in a constant state of flux. Unfortunately, the same service may be categorized into either of the three depending on who is making the categorization – a developer, a system administrator or a manager.

Decision makers’ views on cloud computing have shifted considerably over the years from the their initial reaction of the cloud being all hype and spin created to separate IT departments from large portions of their tight budget allocations. Now this initial resistance has waned the world over as more and more companies push data and applications into the cloud. The evolution of the cloud is evident to anyone that follows the IT industry; the cloud is heartily being embraced as a business enabler.

Today there are numerous service providers that compete with or offer complementary services to Amazon and its extremely successful and revolutionary EC2 offering. Each does the infrastructure component a bit differently. One such service provider is Savvis, which offers four web services under its Symphony Enterprise-Class Cloud Solutions: Symphony VPDC; Symphony Database; Symphony Dedicated; and Symphony Open.

Comparing cloud providers is difficult, as not all clouds are created equal … nor are they priced the same. Amazon, much like Rackspace and Terremark, leads with per-hour per-instance pricing. It isn’t until you get into configuration that you realize there is more to the pricing exercise than what’s shown on the leading page of their pricing sheets. The old adage of “The devil is in the details” applies here.

Global social networking powerhouse Facebook has the financial world on their toes once again. That’s because Facebook continues to make its own set of rules—often to the exasperation of the rest of the world. Despite the ongoing anticipation, hope, and speculation that Facebook might finally go public, the latest news is that no, it still [...]