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I attended a cloud conference this week in Cupertino, CA at the HP Executive Briefing Center that outlines all of HP’s cloud offerings. I found it very helpful; HP as a number of excellent cloud solutions for the enterprise. Unfortunately they did not seem to have offerings for small businesses that looked as easy as the solutions I recommend here, but for medium-sized to enterprise-level I would definitely recommend you look into their offerings.

I was very impressed how HP attempts to educate potential customers instead of selling them. Of course education is part of the selling process, but they seemed to do so without giving a hard sell. For instance, there are not product numbers all over their diagrams showing people how HP can help with those solutions. Of course when the client asks they are happy to explain, but they sell these services from an education angle which I think is the right way to do it.

HP does not seem to have many cloud services that compare to Amazon S3 or cloud hosting providers in that you cannot go to their website and get a tour, see the prices, and sign up. I think that is a mistake as that will scare off almost any small business (though I don’t think that is their target right now).

Here are some of the presentations on Slideshare:

• HP Cloud Assure
• Effectively Managing Cloud Solutions in 5 Steps
• LoadRunner in the Cloud
• HP Cloud Services Enablement
• HP Cloud Services
• Fast Track Your Private Cloud Transformation
• HP Solutions for a Fast Track World

There were a number of other bloggers who attended the event, and you’ll want to check out their blogs:

• Allessandro Perilli
• Anthony Park
• Chris Evans
• Geva Perry
• Michael Knuckey
• Phillip Jaenke

The speakers were:

Roger Strukhoff talks about the recent Cloud Expo in New York  in this article over at in.sys-con.com:

A year ago, most IT execs were looking into the “what” of Cloud Computing, as Cloud Expo speaker Dr. Hal Stern of Oracle noted. “But this year, people are here to talk about ‘how.’” as he said during his session in New York. (Hal was so integral to Sun Microsystems for so long, it’s odd to write or see the phrase “Dr. Hal Stern of Oracle.” It’s sort of like saying “Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings,” although we’re not sure how hockey-fan Hal feels about being compared to The Great One.)

Cloud Expo in New York did have that “how” feel through and through, in a way that Santa Clara did not. The last-minute rush in Santa Clara reflected an extreme interest in Cloud; everyone showed up at once to see what all the hubbub was about. In New York, they showed up to see how to squeeze performance out of Cloud Computing, how to become more efficient with it, and how to make it secure.

This press release on PRNewswire takes a some new features available for Verizon’s cloud-based CaaS:

As more companies move to embrace cloud computing, Verizon Business is enriching its on-demand, global cloud computing solution – Verizon Computing as a Service, or CaaS.  The enhancements provide business customers with better control and flexibility over their computing environments.

Based on customer demand, Verizon recently added the following features to CaaS:

• Server Cloning – Provides IT administrators with the option to customize the configuration of a CaaS virtual server and then create a golden, or reference, server image.  This eliminates the need to manually create the same server image multiple times and enables the rapid deployment of server clones supporting the same corporate application.

• Application and Operating System Expansion – The SUSE Linux operating system is now supported on the Verizon CaaS platform as a standard service offering.  Linux software is used with commonly deployed enterprise resource planning packages.  In addition, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 has been added as a “click-to-provision” database server option.

• Expanded Networking Flexibility – Enterprises now have expanded and streamlined networking options – virtual router and shared virtual private networks, including Verizon Private IP – for connecting back-end systems to Verizon CaaS via the online portal.  In addition, customers can purchase metered, burstable bandwidth up to 1Gbps to meet immediate requirements for temporary computing capacity.

Over at the Cloud Computing Journal Peter Silva has taken a look at people’s understanding of what the cloud is and provides several links that with different explanations and evaluations of the cloud.

We all know that there is still significant confusion surrounding cloud computing driven by vendor claims, lack of standards and it being a *relatively* new technology tool for business.  I’ll let the links do most of the talking  but it is interesting to watch the videos and hear all the different opinions on what is cloud computing over the years.

Former disc jockey Dave Macli discusses how cloud-based services are helping his music-based business over at rcpmag.com.

Macli, founder and chief executive of social networking and music file portal The DJ Booth, thought it was a good idea out of the gate as the perfect example of a Web 2.0 enterprise client.

“In order to be successful we have to be on the cutting edge of the music industry,” said Macli. “If an artist releases a song and we don’t have it up the next day, our users will let us know about it.”

It’s for this very reason that Macli says he needs to keep focused. His company chose to have its IT infrastructure hosted by Dallas-based The Planet. Macli’s firm is headquartered in New York. Such is the nature of leaving IT to someone else Macli says.

Macli’s relationship with The Planet is a prelude to how cloud computing services can and will be deployed in the future.

Cloudhostingmag.com takes a look at ten great ways to speed up your site in a two part article that examines some great ways to increase how fast and efficient your site is for visitors.  Their ten ways are:

For an examination of each of these ways check out part 1 and part 2 of this article.

Cloudkick has recently announced premium features for those with serious cloud needs.They say users will “get access to our advanced new monitoring tools that allow you to track metrics such as disk, load, CPU and memory. Plans range from $99 to $599.”

Features include monitoring upgrades (like SMS alerts), on-machine monitoring, on-machine diagnostics, and support for Linode, GoGrid, VPS.net and Rimuhosting.

Congrats to the Cloudkick team for getting that launched! This is sure to help the cloud hosting community.