In his latest The Wisdom of Clouds article, James Urquhart examines the link between the economy and cloud-computing.

Apparently, the idea is that tightening budgets have opened the minds of enterprises everywhere to the possibilities of cloud computing. That, in turn, seems to suggest that IT is somehow cheaper when run in cloud models.

That may or may not be the case, but I think the concept that the economic recession is driving interest in cloud is off the mark. What is driving enterprises to consider the cloud is ultimately the same thing that drives start-ups into the cloud: cash flow. Cash flow and the agility that comes from a more liquid “pay as you go” model.

In this intelligent-enterprise article, David Linthicum takes at the association between the iPad and the Cloud and misperceptions that many people hold regarding the device.

Truth-be-told, the iPad has about as much to do with cloud computing as any device that can connect to the Web. While any appliance, which is what this really is, needs to have a robust back-end infrastructure to support the native applications, from on-line banking to Twitter, there is not much new here that we’ve not seen before. Not the architecture, the concept, or even the technology. It looks a bit better, I will give you that.

Bernard Golden, a contributor to the International Data Group (IDG) News Service, talks about why some companies are running into problems trying to put their apps on the cloud. His reasoning is that they’re treating the cloud as if it were just an update to traditional hosting solutions.

In our discussions with these companies, their question is: “Shouldn’t this problem be solved by cloud computing? After all, the cloud offers resource elasticity, processing power on demand, huge scalability. So why is my application running into these problems?”

The challenge they’ve run into is that they treated cloud computing like Hosting 2.0, and now they’re suffering for it.

Read the full article here.

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.

This detailed article over at martdatacollective.com explains the concept of RAIC:

Well over a year ago, in a conversation with Alexis Richardson, I came up with a catchy acronym to articulate an idea that I had been kicking around as a simple way to respond to all of the Sturm und Drang in the press and the blogosphere about “lock-in”, “data portability” and reliability of cloud computing providers.  I said — “You know what, mate, done properly, it would be like a RAID setup — it would be an array of cloud providers.  Umm, yeah, it would be RAIC!  ‘Redundant Array of Independent Cloud providers’”.  Alexis, as I recall, burst out laughing, and said something like “You better trademark that, Mark.  That’s great.”

Hostingpublicity.com takes a look at a new app Rackspace has released for the iPad:

The Rackspace(R) Cloud, the cloud computing division of Rackspace Hosting, has announced the release of Rackspace Cloud Pro(TM), the first application for the new iPad(TM) to enable developers to monitor and manage their Rackspace Cloud Servers(TM). With Cloud Pro, users can turn on backups for a server, create new servers from backups, manage back-up scheduling, re-boot, rename, resize and delete servers — all using the iPad’s intuitive touchscreen interface. The free application is now available at iTunes.

The application also offers a panel on the login screen that shows users the current system status of the entire Rackspace Cloud and displays the US and UK Rackspace support numbers. Using Cloud Pro, users can also ping the public IP address for a Cloud Server to see how responsive their server is from wherever they are located. Cloud Pro for iPad frees businesses and developers from their desktops by offering them enterprise-quality server control and functionality through the convenience and mobility of the iPad.

This article at reddevnews.com examines a few companies that you may or may not know about:

Don’t just consider the “big boys” when determining your cloud computing partner — many vendors have a lot to offer. Here’s five up-and-coming platforms to add to your consideration list.

This article from Network World takes a look the complex structure of the cloud:

The reality of cloud computing has always been a lot more about the nuts and bolts of data-center operations than about the metaphor of on-demand computer power flowing from anonymous sources somewhere on the other end of the network connection.  Still, it’s a bit too meta when you realize that cloud-computing platforms are often made up of other clouds.

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.

A presentation at CloudConnect by Guy Rosen, CEO of Vircado and the man behind the jackofallclouds blog.