If you’re an ISV, you should strongly consider becoming a Force.com partner and building your cloud application or business on their platform. “Force.com’s applicability has as much to do with your company’s goals and circumstances as with the application or technology you want to build.” Moreover, working your relationship with salesforce.com, a credible cloud provider, could prove to be an advantage for your business. Force.com is on its way to becoming the cloud platform of choice, and ISV’s could take advantage of this opportunity to grow on the platform too.

• Is Force.com Your Key to the Cloud Kingdom?

This article is interesting because it shows that cloud computing is helping in a non conventional way- to help fight counterfeit drugs and save lives. According to International Policy Network, counterfeit and stolen drugs claim 700,000 lives every year, and mPedigree is taking steps to stop this. They’ve teamed up with pharmaceutical companies and HP to “offer a way for patients to check the authenticity of their medicines free of charge, with a basic mobile phone.” Basically, the user can text the drug’s code found on the packaging to a designated number, which then is checked against a database stored securely in the cloud to determine if it is real or counterfeit. The patient can then report the fake drugs by calling a phone number. As the article states, “rest assured that the great minds of cloud will continue to leverage technology to solve the toughest challenges and make the world a better place.”

• Cloud-based Services Will Fight Counterfeit Drugs

Earlier this week, lightning struck Ireland’s EC2 and knocked out Amazon’s servers for up to two days. Even though Amazon had a backup in place, the explosion and fire harmed the backup generator plant as well. What is unfortunate about this event is that, like last time Amazon had an outage, Amazon’s customers have been complaining about insufficient information regarding the incident and when it will recover. Unfortunately, you think they would have learned from the last outage earlier this year in the US, but apprently Dublin did not get the memo.

• Lightning Strike Zaps EC2 Ireland

EbizQ is hosting a strong discussion around the question, “What do companies still not get about cloud computing?” Some contributers think that companies genuinely don’t “get” what it is, while others are just worried about the risks involved- safety, security, and access. What is interesting though is that even the companies that do not “get” the cloud are still probably using it. Even Gmail counts as a cloud system, where you can access your email from any device as long as there is an internet connection. More companies are probably using the cloud than they think, but are just now on their way to understanding what it is and how much it can benefit them. Please contribute your thoughts to the link below.

• What Do Companies Still Not Get About Cloud Computing?

In order to cut costs, police in the UK are considering a switch to cloud computing. Their main setback is safety and security of their data. The Metropolitan Police is planning on using the cloud for a variety of systems: “managing patrols, operations, incidents and investigations, managing evidence and forensics, and collating information- in the cloud.” As we all know, the cloud is just as safe and secure as any other service, and oftentimes more reliable. If the UK police join the cloud, this will be yet another step towards growth, and hopefully catch the eye of more possible users.

• Police Planning Major Switchover to Cloud Computing

CloudTweaks takes an interesting position on last week’s Amazon outage, arguing that the outage is “actually a very positive sign for cloud computing.” Even though many popular websites such as Foursquare and Quora went down, Netflix managed to get by with only a minor hiccup. This is because whenever Netflix notices one of their operational systems or availability zones is poorly performing, they “terminate it and get a new one” or “switch over to another.” Smart move on their part, since problems and failures will undoubtably occur. However, thanks to the cloud, it easy for companies to deal with these issues by simply transferring their content into other data centers. Even though Amazon is at fault for this outage, companies shouldn’t put all the blame on them, as they too, should have been more prepared.

• Amazon Web Services Deployment the Right Way

Greenbutton provides us with a great cloud case study. “Greenbutton leverages cloud processing to drive result for the bio sciences, geoscience and engineering and 3d artists.” Through partnering with Microsoft Azure, Greenbutton’s 3d artists can accelerate their render jobs and reduce their processing time significantly- literally from hours to just a few minutes, saving them significant costs and time.

• Head of Microsoft Azure Calls Out Greenbutton. The Perfect Cloud Case Study?

On Friday, VMware announced their purchas of SlideRocket, a service that provides companies with online presentation software, essentially allowing them to make fancy PowerPoint presentations in the cloud. VMware believes that the acquisition of SlideRocket will help their users “‘deliver access to applications and data from any device, where and when a user needs it’ and ‘help VMware drive a new model for end-user computing for the enterprise.’” PowerPoint is the second most widely used business tool, following email.

• VMware Makes a Move on Office

The Wall Street Journal is comparing the future of cloud computing to the Industrial Revolution, in that cloud computing is going to “shape our future world.” The biggest impact of the cloud will of course be in the business sector, changing the way many companies manage their IT infrastructure, office communication, and reducing costs. Is it too much to say, “We told you so?”

• Cloud Labeled as a ‘Revolution’

Earlier this week, ebizQ asked users to respond to the assumption that SOA is being ignored in the cloud, and instead architects are, “tossing things out of the enterprise onto private and public clouds and hoping for the best.” Overall, responses seem to be 50/50 on the matter. Delivered Innovation CTO Michael Topalovich argues that SOA may not be lost, but rather, the issue lies in the fact that many companies do not comprehend the cloud, or even go as far as to claim they are using “the cloud,” when in reality, they don’t fully understand what the cloud is. Feel free to post your opinions to this discussion.

• Are the Lessons of SOA Being Ignored with the Cloud?

Amazon’s server outage that began early Thursday morning sparked a lot of angry customers and companies. Hootsuite, Reddit and Foursquare are just a few of the widely used sites that were down for over 24 hours, making it difficult for some people to do their jobs efficiently. While some dubbed it the “Cloudpocolypse,” or even sent out comical tweets such as, “@Nicolethebear Dear Amazon EC2 – have you tried turning it on & off again?” it is clear that there is much to learn from this widespread outage.

Amazon has yet to release a full statement on the matter. However, below we have a roundup of the situation and what user’s and blogger’s have to say about the issue, as well as opinions on what can be done to avoid such an outage in the future.

What Happened:

• Amazon Server Troubles Take Down Reddit, Foursquare & HootSuite

• Amazon Glitch Takes Down Websites

• Amazon’s Cloud Nightmare

• Amazon’s Cloud Collapse Looks Better on Day 2, but Problems Continue

• Amazon Mum on Cloud Crash

Reactions:

• Amazon.com’s Real Problem Isn’t the Outage, It’s the Communication

• Single Points of Failure

• Will Amazon EC2 Outage Negatively Affect Attitudes Toward Cloud? Nah

What We Can Learn:

• What Can We Learn From Amazon’s Cloud Failure?

• What We Can Learn From Amazon’s Cloud Collapse

• AWS is down: Why the sky is falling

• What to Do When Your Cloud is Down

As more and more companies move to the cloud, it is important to keep in mind what actually constitutes as “the cloud” rather than another software claiming to be in the cloud, when in reality, it falls short. Steven John lists 10 critical characteristics of a true cloud application (such as multi-use, regularly updated, and seamless integration); if your company does not follow these guidelines, you’re not truly “in the cloud.”

• 10 Critical Requirements for Cloud Applications

An infographic that takes us back all the way to 1991 when the first website was developed to the present day. Interesting to see how far we’ve come in the past two decades with web technology.

• Web Design Evolution: Two Decades of Innovation

On Thursday, multiple Amazon Availability Zones went down, taking Foursquare, Reddit, Heroku, and many other websites with it. Fast forward 24 hours, and Amazon is still trying to resolve the issue. Rather than blaming the cloud, however, we should embrace the situation and learn from it. Warfield offers his opinion, stating that, “the trick is in making your infrastructure sufficiently metadata driven,” as well as test the production of your infrastructure for any possible downtime to prepare for when a crisis actually occurs. If you think ahead, many issues can be resolved quicker when they actually arise.

• What to do When Your Cloud is Down

There is a lot to be optimistic about when it comes to the cloud. According to a new Sand Hill Group survey, cloud computing and SaaS will drive the largest amount of spending in the next 12 months. Moreover, over 100 software companies expect their businesses to grow by at least 20% by the end of 2011, which will result in significantly more jobs. Over 50% of said respondents believe that cloud computing is imperative to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

• Cloud Computing to Drive Industry Growth in 2011
  

This Earth Day, instead of coming up with ways to take less time in the shower, consider moving to the cloud- it might save you more energy than you think. In fact, a recent study performed by Accenture and WSP Environment and Energy found that moving your small business to the cloud, “can reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions on a per-user basis by 30 to 90 percent versus running those same applications on-premises.” The cloud is not only an efficient resource for businesses, but also an important part of our earth’s future and helping the environment.

• Earth Day 2011: Cloud Computing… Can it Help?
  

Appirio announced their recent acquisition, VMG, this week. VMG is a training partner that assists companies in their training programs in order to help them improve their service. Appirio states that they plan to use VMG’s talents “throughout our sales, delivery and solution architect teams to ensure user adoption and customer satisfaction are embedded in everything we do.” Appirio’s acquisition sheds light on how important it is to not lose quality customer service while working in the cloud.

• Appirio Acquires VMG, Directing Attention to the People Part of Cloud Adoption
  

Dennis Howlett brings to light the fact that the term ‘cloud’, “has become so bastardized… it could mean almost anything.” Even though the general public often hears about the cloud, few companies actually know what it truly is and how it can help their business. In turn, companies are wasting millions in marketing over something they themselves do not even understand.

• Adoption? All Over the Map

Author gives their opinion on the future of the cloud, stating that, “the cloud will have a profound impact on the way corporations use IT.”  What the author failed to note is that the cloud already has made a profound impact, not just in IT, but also on how businesses work as a whole. Like we have stated in the past, the cloud changes everything.

• The Future of Cloud Computing

This article adds a different level of credibility to the cloud by putting it in an investment context. F5 Network, salesforce.com, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, and VMware are the seven major companies that are rapidly expanding their cloud computing resources. Author Andre Bradley states, “investors can expect to see the shares of these companies climb in the coming years,” and suggests that investors begin looking into it and investing now.

• 7 Cloud Computing Stocks You Should Own

Looking for an excuse not to move to the cloud? Cloud Tweaks lists 65 reasons why you might not want to make the switch. Just a few to get you started: “6. You would be bored- No more coordinating the configuration, test, development, and integration of hardware and software? What would you do all day? 30. Your internal security is 100% guaranteed- much more secure than having your data in the cloud. 56. You’re certain that Cloud computing is just a fad like the Internet was.”

• 65 Reasons for NOT Moving to the Cloud- Proceed at Your Own Risk!

Author David Dobrin makes the argument that SaaS vendor Workday may not be as sexy and command the valuation of a consumer-facing upstart such as Groupon, but should not be overlooked because there is significant long-term value to be created from Workday’s enterprise offering.

• Workday and Hoover Dam: Valuing Cloud Companies

Sencha’s ExtJS 4 was promoted to Beta on Wednesday, complete with all new features to make web application development easier. This includes infinite scrolling, SVG and VML charting, and a theming engine to assist in styling web apps. Delivered Innovation leverages the ExtJS framework extensively for creating rich user interfaces in Force.com custom applications.

• Ext JS 4 Beta 1 is Available Today
  

Apex’s billionth line of coding is now in production, and each one has contributed to Force.com and Apex’s success. This momentous occasion has developers wondering about the future of Apex and what sort of improvements we will see in the future. Mountjoy promises better testing support, REST support, and improved Javascript components. He could not go into all the details, but he did describe the future of Apex as, “pretty darn exciting.”

• A Billion Lines of Apex
  

Since the rise of Web-based applications for iPads, iPhones, Androids and other smart devices, use of the web has significantly decreased. To counteract this, HTML5 was launched, representing “the next big step in the progress of the Web.” HTML5 allows you to write Web applications which are accessible through your browser that are just as content rich and lively as Web-based apps. Google Chrome has been using this technology since its debut last year, and Mozilla and Safari are slowly getting the hint.

• In A New Web World, No Application is an Island
  

Amazon launched their Cloud Player today, finally bringing music libraries into the cloud. Each user starts off with 5GB of storage, then can increase their storage by either purchasing 20GB for $20/year, or purchasing new music. Parr describes Cloud Player as, “fully functional, very usable streaming music player that could even make iTunes obsolete.” Apple and Google are set to launch their own cloud players in the near future, and Amazon has certainly set the bar high for competition.

• Amazon Cloud Player: First Impressions
  

Our favorite part of the season is finally here, time to vote for your favorite Salesforce Summer logo. What will it be: the sun, dolphin, or beach ball? More on this important and developing story to come.

• Vote For Your Favorite Summer ‘11 Logo