Cloud Computing praised after quake

Business continuity (BC) systems were put to the test during and after an earthquake in New Zealand, reports Computerworld.

The benefits of cloud computing also came to the fore, as smaller companies were saved by not having their systems onsite. Smaller companies have praised the cloud, because their hosted systems weren't impacted by the earthquake.

Enfinit Software, which develops online time sheet management tool TimeFiler, was barely affected at all, says CEO Ian Johnson. TimeFiler is hosted with another local company, Computer Concepts, which takes care of disaster recovery as well.

CommVault has introduced 'Cloud DR', a mid-market disaster recovery offering that enables customers to realise higher levels of BC without the large capital investments typically required by traditional, off-premises disaster recovery solutions, states TMCnet.

Officials at CommVault say the company will provide small and medium-size enterprises with DR solutions that leverage integration between CommVault's enterprise cloud computing-optimised Simpana software and Rackspace's cloud hosting services.

According to the company, with CommVault's integrated cloud storage connector for Simpana software, joint customers can use its single console to move on-premise backup and archive data securely and reliably to Rackspace Cloud Files, which provides online storage for files and media.

Petrom has entered into a 10-year, multi-million data centre services agreement with IBM, according to Data Center Knowledge.

Under the agreement, IBM will take over data centre operations and provide cloud computing, hosting, installation and co-location services, backup and BC services.

“This collaboration with IBM reaffirms the high standards used for building and equipping the data centre in Petrom City,” says Reinhard Pichler, chief financial officer of Petrom.