Patrick Burke

Nothing levels the playing field like cloud computing, at least in terms of smaller businesses being able to gain a foothold in a particular market.

Small and midsize businesses have much to gain from embracing business cloud solutions. Cloud platforms allow SMEs to compete in the cloud giant-controlled environment and creates a level playing field required to succeed in business.

Some small and medium companies have yet to fully realize the advantages that cloud solutions can provide. In the meantime, hundreds of cloud vendors are preparing for the expected major upswing in popularity among cloud services for SMEs and for private consumers as well.

Business Development Director Paul Bryce of Node4 stated that one of the most important benefits of cloud computing is the extensive environment that gives enough leverage for SMEs to compete with the giants in the industry. With VMware, EMC and Cisco as one among the many cloud partners, SMEs can have the most cost-effective, yet very efficient IT infrastructure.

Learn more about the advantages cloud offers small businesses in this article on CloudTimes.org.

Cloud Company Nirvanix Gives Customers Two Weeks' Notice
Here's something that rarely happens in the world of cloud computing.

A popular cloud storage provider apparently is going belly up and needs to close down operation, leaving customers only a short time to find new homes for all their data, according to an article on eWEEK.com.

On Sept. 17, San Diego, Calif.-based Nirvanix told its customers it is shutting down its operation on Sept. 30, giving customers a mere two weeks to move their data elsewhere. As of late Sept. 17, Nirvanix had not commented on the situation. Nirvanix is no fly-by-night IT services provider. It has partnerships with Tier 1 companies such as Intel for SMB cloud storage and IBM for high-end enterprise storage. It also has high-visibility customers, such as NASA, Fox Sports and National Geographic to store video and photos.

Steven Ampleford, chief executive of Aorta Cloud and Aorta Capital, a Nirvanix partner, told VentureBeat that he received a phone call from Nirvanix officials with the news on Sept. 16.

"Armageddon is about to happen," Ampleford said.

Nirvanix officials didn't tell him what would happen if customers don't get their data out by the end of the month. Ampleford said he was told that the company had lost its latest round of funding. Another customer said he was told that the company simply could no longer compete with major market players.

Jaguar Land Rover Takes Cloud Computing for a Spin
Cloud computing is now traveling in style.

Jaguar Land Rover is looking to embrace cloud computing to bring more IT efficiency, agility and scalability to its infrastructure.

In the last two years, the car maker transformed its IT from a UK-centric to a globally scaled facility by upgrading its data center infrastructure with virtualization, automation and tools to support a mobile, collaborative workforce, according to an article on Computerweekly.com.

Jaguar Land Rover will be migrating business-critical applications and workloads on to its VCE's private cloud platform, including its engineering and design-related applications.

For Jaguar Land Rover, security of its IT infrastructure is paramount given that its intellectual property (IP) assets are critical to the business.

One of the main reasons the company opted for a private cloud service first is for its enterprise capabilities, sophistication, security and integration capabilities.

"I don't want to be worrying about how to fix the underlying technology," CTO Gordon McMullan said.

The company will use public cloud services to host consumer-oriented applications and workloads related to marketing, advertising and mobile computing.