cloud computing

IBM is going deeper into the cloud. On Tuesday, the Armonk, N.Y.-based company announced beta versions of an expanded commercial cloud-based service for software development and testing, on both public and private clouds.

Cloud computing for development and testing environments, the company said, can cut IT costs in half while improving quality, reducing time to market, and utilizing infrastructure more efficiently.

Partner Companies

Google is making it easier for IT administrators to switch from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps. The Internet search giant on Wednesday made available a tool to help businesses migrate from Exchange.

The Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange tool will help lure more companies to Google Apps by simplifying the migration of e-mail, contacts and calendars from both cloud-hosted Exchange servers and those hosted at the customer's location. The tool allows businesses to make the move whether they have a handful or thousands of users.

Salesforce.com on Wednesday posted a 48 percent jump in fiscal fourth-quarter profit, on strong sales growth for its online business software applications.

For the three months ended Jan. 31, Salesforce.com said profit jumped to $20.4 million, or 16 cents per share, compared with $13.8 million, or 11 cents per share, in last year's fourth quarter.

Revenue shot up 22 percent to $354 million, from $289.6 million a year ago.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, expected profit of 15 cents per share, on revenue of $342.3 million.

Everyone loves clouds these days in corporate computing, and the concept will be a big part of the buzz at the CeBIT information-technology trade fair in Germany March 2-6.

Tasks that we used to do with a desktop computer are often being shifted into the "cloud," meaning that some nameless computer, often on another continent, is helping do the job or save the data.

"It's not just big companies like Microsoft and IBM that are going in for this. Quite small companies will be showing cloud products at CeBIT," said trade fair spokesman, Hartwig von Sass.

CA on Wednesday said it agreed to acquire privately held 3Tera. The acquisition lets the former Computer Associates move deeper into cloud management with 3Tera's popular AppLogic solution. The terms of CA's latest in a string of acquisitions were not disclosed.

Charles Leadbeater in Edge:

Two trends seem to consistently dominate business coverage. One is the continued ability of new technologies to astound consumers and power businesses. The other is the stunning growth of emerging-market economies, from China and India to Brazil and South Korea, among others. Consider that in 1995, only 20 companies from emerging markets were listed on the Global Fortune 500. Today that number stands at 91.

Cisco Systems, NetApp and VMware are joining forces to bring new design architectures to market. The goal is to develop virtualized data centers that are more efficient, dynamic and secure.

The trio on Tuesday introduced an end-to-end Secure Multi-tenancy Design Architecture that works to beef up security in cloud environments by isolating the IT resources and applications of different clients, business units, or departments that share a common IT infrastructure.

Microsoft has taken a step toward getting the federal government to pay attention to cloud-computing services. The Redmond, Wash.-based company is asking for a cloud-computing law.

Microsoft's senior vice president and top legal counsel, Brad Smith, has proposed that Congress institute the Cloud Computing Advancement Act to help foster trust in cloud-computing services and address privacy concerns.

Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft said Wednesday they will jointly spend $250 million to develop hardware and software products that are designed to work together smoothly in their customers' data centers and in cloud computing facilities.

"This is all about integrating technology and making things as close to 'plug and play' as we can," HP CEO Mark Hurd said during a telephone conference call with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and other executives, in which they announced a partnership that appears to represent another move toward consolidation in the commercial tech industry.