HCL enters cloud computing

HCL Infosystems, the $2.5 billion Indian ICT hardware, services and system integration company, announced its entry into cloud computing business with the release of HCL O'zone service which will offer business applications, productivity applications and IT service solutions to the users, reports CIOL.

“HCL O'zone will help users to concentrate on just the opex model instead of worrying about capex. It will provide flexibility to our customers to use applications as per their choice and free them from paying a huge licence fee that is normally charged by software vendors,” said George Paul, executive vice-president, HCL Infosystems.

Paul mentioned that HCL O'zone is the first cloud service in India which has infrastructure up and running where as other players are still at inception stage.

Aestiva Solutions has announced that its Aestiva browser-native application development environment, which previously cost $5 000 per server instance, is now available in a free developer edition and a $1 500 professional edition, says Information Week.

According to Dave Silverberg, a senior manager at the company, the previous free version of the Array could only be used to try out the product, but did not include the commercial business licence needed to be used for live business applications; the new developer edition does not have that restriction.

Array's components include a relayed database engine developed by Aestiva and Rapid Application Development environment.

AT&T is teaming up with Apriva as part of the company's strategy to offer mobile payment applications to small businesses, states San Antonio Biz Journals.

Apriva is the developer of AprivaPay and AprivaPay Professional. These applications turn smartphones into point-of-sale devices that accept credit and debit-card transactions.

AT&T and Apriva officials are working together on a business strategy to market these services to the nation's small-business community.