Oregon schools use Google Apps

Oregon is the first state to offer Google Apps for education in K-12 classrooms, writes Gov Tech.

School officials say the move will save money, enhance communication and collaboration, and prepare students for the digital work force. The solution provides a cloud-based suite that comes with filtered e-mail, calendar functions, document sharing and multimedia streaming options.

"All they need is a Web browser," says Susanne Smith, public affairs manager for the Oregon Department of Education. "Everything happens in the cloud. Our agency went after this because we have an online learning environment."

Cisco, VMware and EMC's VCE coalition has plans for the pre-tested, pre-configured virtualised data centre package, Vblock, says Channel Web.

The vendors say 45 partners and six system integrators are currently selling Vblocks, with 200 partners in the pipeline as Vblocks moves into two-tier distribution.

"What we've found is a tremendous amount of interest at the very top of the solution level on the topic of private clouds," says Rob Lloyd, Cisco's executive VP, worldwide operations. "With so much conversation around cloud computing and cloud infrastructure, we've seen our value proposition resonate more clearly."

F5 Networks has released an enhanced BIG-IP solution to provide security services for applications deployed in the cloud, says MarketWatch.

BIG-IP allows customers to assign policy-based access permissions based on user, location, device, and other variables. The software ensures enterprise applications and data are safe when deployed in the cloud.

The solutions include BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager, BIG-IP Edge Gateway, and BIG-IP Application Security Manager.